Former Canadian PM Kim Campbell says on Twitter she hopes for ‘direct hit’ on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort by hurricane
- Campbell made the remark in response to news that Hurricane Dorian could potentially strike the east coast of Florida early on Tuesday
- She has since deleted the tweet, two days after it was posted, and apologised to ‘all it offended’
Forecasters are closely watching Dorian, which could potentially strike the east coast of Florida early on Tuesday as a Category 4 hurricane.
But in a since-deleted tweet, former Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell responded to news of the threat by exclaiming, “I’m rooting for a direct hit on Mar a Lago!”
The next day, she said that she wished it would “shake up Trump’s climate change denial!”
On Friday, Campbell deleted the original message about Mar-a-Lago taking a hit, two days after it was initially posted and apologised “to all it offended.”
“I shd know better,” she wrote. “Mea culpa.”
Twitter users both vilified and defended Campbell for her original remark, with some interpreting it as sarcasm while others believed it was an unfair attack on the US president.
Her tweet on Wednesday was not the first time she has used the platform to criticise Trump. At the beginning of the year, Campbell called Trump a profane name on Twitter but also deleted that tweet.
“Campbell is known for having a tongue with a mind of its own, and thus far she has not tried to tame it,” The Washington Post’s Charles Truehart wrote in 1993 as she sought the prime minister’s office. She currently chairs the advisory board that recommends Supreme Court appointees to the prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
Twitter maelstroms aside, Dorian poses a serious threat to Florida residents. The storm is “predicted to remain a dangerous hurricane throughout the remainder of the forecast period,” the National Hurricane Centre warned in a Thursday night bulletin.
If Dorian strengthens to a Category 4 hurricane, it will be capable of inflicting “catastrophic damage” with winds that can reach more than 240km/h.
In such a storm, “well-built framed homes can sustain severe damage with loss of most of the roof structure and/or some exterior walls,” according to the National Hurricane Centre. “Most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles downed. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.”
Responding to a reporter question before leaving for Camp David on Friday, Trump said Mar-a-Lago can handle itself.
“That’s a very powerful place,” he said. “The thing I’m worried about is the state of Florida. Because this could be a record-setting hurricane.”
“The winds seem to be building at a tremendous rate. It looks like the winds are going to be unbelievably high,” he said in the video. “Hopefully, we’ll get lucky, but it looks to me that this time it’s heading in one direction; all indications are it’s going to hit very hard, and it’s going to be very big.”
