Trump scotches Poland trip as hurricane whirls toward US

Second cancellation in recent weeks catches some staff off guard; Pence to travel to Warsaw instead as president prepares to deal with expected Category 4 storm

By AP 30 August 2019, 1:32 am

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President Donald Trump pumps his fist after announcing the establishment of the US Space Command during an event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019, in Washington. (AP/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump on Thursday canceled his planned weekend trip to Poland as Hurricane Dorian barrels toward Florida.

Trump, announcing the last-minute change of plans at a Rose Garden signing ceremony, said it was “very important” for him to be in Washington to deal with the storm, which the National Hurricane Center predicts will make landfall on Labor Day as a Category 4 hurricane with 130 mph winds.

“Our highest priority is the safety and security of the American people in the path of the hurricane,” Trump said.

Trump had been scheduled to depart for Warsaw Saturday, returning home Monday, for a visit to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II. He said he’ll be sending Vice President Mike Pence in his place.

It’s the second time Trump has canceled a trip in recent weeks. The president had originally been scheduled to fly from Poland to Copenhagen for his first official trip to Denmark, but canceled after leaders there mocked his desire to purchase Greenland. He just returned from France, where he attended the annual Group of Seven world leaders’ summit.

US President Donald Trump holds his thumb up as he stands in front of the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square during the Three Seas Initiative Summit in Warsaw, Poland, July 6, 2017. (AFP/Saul Loeb)

Trump said he had delivered the news of the cancellation to Polish President Andrzej Duda earlier Thursday and plans to reschedule the trip — which would have been his second to Warsaw — in the “near future.”

Workers help Miami residents at Home Depot where they are buying plywood and other supplies on August 29, 2019, as they prepare for Hurricane Dorian. (Michele Eve Sandberg / AFP)

But the decision nonetheless caught staff off-guard. White House officials typically arrive on-site weeks before a presidential trip and many journalists were already en route to Warsaw when Trump announced he’d pulled the plug.

Currently a Category 1 storm, Dorian left lighter-than-expected damage in its wake in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but is expected to strengthen into a potentially catastrophic Category 4 by the time it slams into the US on Monday, somewhere between the Florida Keys and southern Georgia.

Meteorologists say it could hit practically anywhere in Florida because the weather forces that will determine its path have not played out.