Climate change? It goes back and forth, says Trump on tour of hurricane-hit states

US President Donald Trump on Monday met with victims of Hurricane Michael in devastated areas of Florida and Georgia but again cast doubt on the scientific consensus that climate change is caused by human activity.

Flying in the Marine One presidential helicopter over Florida’s Mexico Beach, one of the towns worst hit by the Category 4 storm, Trump surveyed uprooted trees and rows of roofless homes, some of them torn from their foundations.

“It is incredible, the power of the storm,” Trump said in televised remarks after witnessing downed water towers and a car park where 18-wheel trucks had been scattered like children’s toys.

“Somebody said it was like a very wide, extremely wide tornado. That’s really what this was,” he said. “This was beyond any winds that they’ve seen.”

Michael smashed into Florida’s western coast last Wednesday, packing winds of 250km/h as it began a northern march through several states, killing at least 18 people, according to US media reports.

Trump was accompanied by his wife Melania, Florida’s outgoing Republican governor Rick Scott and Kirstjen Nielsen, head of the Department of Homeland Security, as he inspected damaged homes and businesses.