Donald Trump arrives in Louisiana surrounded by heavily armed guards

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

last updated 21 August 2016

Louisiana's capital city of Baton Rouge has been besieged by flooding, and tens of thousands of residents have been displaced. It's the worst national disaster since Hurricane Sandy — and yet President Obama hasn't traveled to the area, nor have the party nominees vying to replace him made any grand overtures to do so. That is, until now.

Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, made a surprise visit to Baton Rouge on Friday morning, a fact that fills some Trump supporters with finger-pointing glee:

Though the Trump campaign has said little about the details of his visit, the state's Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, said he hoped the Republican presidential nominee would volunteer his time to help the victims. But considering that just touching down in Baton Rouge and exiting the airplane requires for Trump two heavily armed military men — reportedly USS counter assault team agents who protect the president and presidential nominees — perhaps wading through the Louisiana waters will not be on Trump's agenda. Lauren Hansen

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Lauren Hansen produces The Weekâ€™s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.