Governor Tim Walz says he had a “very productive” conversation with President Trump about a likely request for federal disaster aid when the president was in Minnesota Monday. Walz wrote a letter to Trump describing the effects of a brutal winter, followed by spring flooding, and then last week’s blizzard. He says the president asked to meet with him and “he had Congressmen [Jim] Hagedorn and [Pete] Stauber and [Tom] Emmer come in. He said, I hear Tim’s a good guy. You think we can help him out? And they all laughed and they said, of course.” Walz says the president expressed his desire to get that done.
Walz says because many communities are still fighting the floods and more time is needed to fully restore power in southern Minnesota, it will likely be several weeks before a preliminary damage assessment is done.