Greg Gianforte has returned to Montana after a vacation in Italy during which the state was ravaged by floods.
After his plane from Tuscany landed in Bozeman, the governor went on a tour of Yellowstone’s ravaged areas.
On a runway in front of a helicopter and chinook, he was photographed shaking hands with emergency management officer Deanne Criswell.
Gianforte had been widely chastised for going on vacation when his state was dealing with a ‘once-in-a-500-years’ flooding crisis, according to officials.
He and his wife Susan were out eating in Casole d’Elsa earlier this week, according to DailyMail.com.
It’s unclear whether he cut short his vacation in Tuscany or decided to stay until the end to return to his stricken state.
The governor’s office had earlier stated that he would return ‘as quickly as possible,’ but had not specified a time frame.
Many compared Gianforte to Ted Cruz, who was chastised for vacationing in Cancun as Texans died of frostbite in the winter of 2021.
Gianforte’s head was overlaid onto a photo of Cruz passing through the airport while returning from his vacation to Mexico in one internet joke.
‘Greg Gianforte took lessons from Ted Cruz apparently,’ wrote one user, with a reworking of a popular meme showing a car turning off at an exit signed ‘mysterious trip abroad’ when the other option was ‘responding to floods with on the ground leadership.’
‘Greg Gianforte pulled a Ted Cruz and is vacationing out of the country while Montana blunders its response to massive flooding,’ wrote another.
Despite assurances from the republican governor’s office, some Montana lawmakers found his absence inexcusable.
‘In a moment of unprecedented disaster and economic uncertainty, Gianforte purposefully kept Montanans in the dark about where he was, and who was actually in charge,’ said executive director of the Montana Democratic Party, Sheila Hogan, ‘Again, we ask, where in the world is Gov. Gianforte?’
The peanut gallery on Twitter – where Gianforte has published over 30 tweets about the flooding – have been equally unimpressed by the absence.
‘Who is we??? And where in the h**l are you?’ wrote one user in response to a tweet from the governor saying ‘We are closely monitoring the flooding.’
‘Is that the Royal We? And monitoring from where?’ wrote another.
In the comments section of the governor’s tweets, a meme picturing him in a Where’s Waldo suit above the question ‘Where’s Gianforte?’ has surfaced.
Another placed Gianforte’s photo on the side of a milk container with the words ‘MISSING’ and a plea: ‘Have you seen me?’ If found, contact the people of Montana.
As people continued to look for the governor, one person compared him to the old TV show ‘Where in the World is Carmen San Diego.’
Throughout the crisis, Gianforte has been active on Twitter, tweeting that he is “closely monitoring” the situation, prompting indignant and sarcastic responses from followers.
Montana politicians have also criticized the governor, accusing him of attempting to conceal the fact that he was out of the country when his state was in crisis.
According to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the governor was last seen in public on June 10 at the groundbreaking of a Montana State University facility in Bozeman. The first flood warnings for the Yellowstone region were issued the next day.
After flooding washed away countless Montana houses, stranded entire towns of inhabitants, and put drinking water supplies in peril, Gianforte signed over his responsibilities to Lt. Governor Kristen Juras three days after he was last seen.
The next day, Juras signed a state disaster proclamation.
‘I have declared a statewide disaster due to flooding to help impacted communities get back on their feet as soon as possible,’ Gianforte tweeted that day.
As local Montana media began to report on the governor’s absence, Gianforte’s administration issued a statement that provided only a hazy explanation for his whereabouts.
The governor was on a “long-scheduled personal trip with the first lady” abroad, according to the statement, and would be “returning early and as quickly as possible.”
The press release also contained a “non-exhaustive summary” of the state’s disaster response efforts.
‘Gov. Gianforte has also been in regular communication with local elected leaders (including commissioners and legislators), local law enforcement officials, and state and local disaster and emergency services personnel,’ wrote gubernatorial spokesperson Brooke Stroyke, according to the Independent Record.
The event is not the governor’s first run-in with the law as a politician. He was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for assaulting Guardian writer Ben Jacobs while running for Congress in Montana in 2017.
On the day of a house special election in May, Jacobs was at Gianforte’s campaign office when the candidate became enraged and ‘body-slammed’ him to the ground.
He’s also been fined for illegal hunting tactics that resulted in the deaths of many animals that were being tracked for research.
Officials at Yellowstone National Park said they don’t know when they’ll be able to reopen the park’s northern sector because Gianforte is still gone abroad.
Flooding in the region has been described as a once-in-a-thousand-year occurrence that might change the flow of the Yellowstone River and neighboring landscapes forever, according to park officials.
During the tragedy, 10,000 visitors were evacuated from the park, including a dozen trapped campers who were rescued by helicopter.
Meanwhile, after being flooded by floodwaters, the Billings water treatment plant reopened ‘at a very low capacity’ on Wednesday night. The plant serves as the city’s only water treatment facility.