On March 2-3, 2020, a tornado outbreak ravaged parts of western and central Tennessee. 25 people died and over 300 were injured.

On March 6, Trump visited the area to survey the damage.

Trump brought up one of survivors, a young boy who had been thrown from his home by the tornado.

THE PRESIDENT: They just — all of a sudden, they’re watching television or something and, all of a sudden, they’re outside, walking on the street.

There was one young boy, I heard he was taken out of the house and —

 

MAYOR PORTER: He was. One minute he’s in his house, the next minute he’s laying in his yard. It happened that fast.

 

THE PRESIDENT: A couple of blocks away.

 

MAYOR PORTER: Yes.

Trump returned to the subject of the boy again just a few minutes later, making gestures of his spinning in the air and clumsily navigating being told he was the sole survivor from his family.

THE PRESIDENT …A lot of them have lost people within the family. One family got entirely wiped out. There was one case, though — I heard a young man was — an 8-year-old boy was ripped out, flown to a certain area, and dropped off at the street two or three blocks away. And they found him walking. And he said, “I just flew in the air.” And he was walking down the street two blocks away from his home. And how did his parents do? Do you know?

 

MAYOR PORTER: We don’t — we’re not for sure exactly how they turned up.

 

MR. HERRICK: They were found deceased.

 

THE PRESIDENT: They were deceased? They were dead.

 

MR. HERRICK: (Inaudible) only surviving member of the household, and lost his sibling as well.

 

THE PRESIDENT: So it took him and he said, “I was carried by the air, away from my house.” He came back. But his —

 

MR. HERRICK: He was (inaudible) the house over there and dropped him in the neighborhood back behind us.

 

THE PRESIDENT: He was over there. And his parents were killed.

 

MAYOR PORTER: And sister.

 

THE PRESIDENT: And his sister. So we’re going to go see some of the folks.

NPR – ‘We Love Them’: Trump Tours And Consoles Tornado-Ravaged Tennessee
Whitehouse.gov – Remarks by President Trump After Surveying Tornado Damage | Cookeville, TN
Wikipedia – Tornado outbreak of March 2–3, 2020