WATCH: Trump Nearly Congratulates Greg Abbott on Hurricane Harvey

Twitter President Trump meets with Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

President Donald Trump nearly congratulated Texas Governor Greg Abbott in the midst of massive flooding and chaos brought on by Tropical Storm Harvey at an update briefing on the damage.

“We won’t say congratulations, we won’t want to do that,” Trump said to Abbott. “We’ll congratulate each other when it’s all finished.”

Watch a video of Trump giving the remark in the video below:


Before Trump’s remarks, Abbott credited the president for his response to the massive storm.

“What I’ve learned is we can count on the president of the United States and his staff for helping Texas,” Abbott said. “Texas has been tested, but our response to this challenge has been made much more effective because of the very effective way the president and his staff have responded to this challenge.”

Trump led off his statement by thanking Abbott for his words, adding “it’s so nice, governor, and it’s really my honor.”

Trump, along with First Lady Melania, arrived in Corpus Christie on Tuesday afternoon for a briefing on the storm, which has caused catastrophic flooding to the Houston area and has left thousands of people displaced. Over 3,500 people have had to be rescued from their homes and another nine people have died as a result of the storm.

Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane Friday night between Port Aransas and Port O’Connor and brought winds in excess of 130 mph. While it’s since dissipated from that level to a tropical storm, it’s dropped a historic 49 inches of rain so far, and more is in the forecast the next two days.

Many of the shelters for evacuees are at capacity, and other avenues to put those who are displaced are being worked on.