With the recent natural disasters in Puerto Rico and with severe need for hurricane recovery effort, the Trump administration officials’ in Washington lack of action is leaving many in Puerto Rico with no options as they live in parts without the most basic necessities – electricity, water, and infrastructure. On Friday, the mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital city, according to the Washington Post, made a desperate plea for aid on behalf of all of Puerto Rico.
Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan issued the following statement:
“People are dying in this country, I am begging, begging anyone that can hear us, to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying and you are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy.”
This ardent plea for outside aid was met with an immature and inappropriate tweet from Trump:
“The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.”
In the midst of everything Puerto Rico must undertake to survive and prepare to rebuild, they have the President (who is responsible for them as a territory of the U.S.) making snarky comments. What completely astounds me is instead of focusing on the plea for help, the President decides to focus on what he really cares about: himself. Trump tweeted about how Cruz was “nasty to Trump” as if this is the third grade and he needs to come up with a comeback.
Not only this, Trump proceeded to criticize the “poor leadership ability” of officials in San Juan before retweeting the Coast Guard and the Air Force, who documented their work on relief efforts. I feel like someone needs to sit Trump down and explain to him that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory home to millions of American citizens.
Also on Friday, Trump told reporters the White House has “made tremendous strides” responding in Puerto Rico, and he pointed to the death toll during his comments.” In reference to the challenges in responding to the dire situation in Puerto Rico, Trump described Puerto Rico as “an island surrounded by water – big water, ocean water.” And no, that’s not a joke.
I can’t help but notice how he refers to Puerto Rico as if they were some foreign island completely separate from the U.S. and many have noticed his remarks about Puerto Rico stand in stark contrast to the way he responded to hurricanes Harvey and Irma in Texas and Florida, according to The Washington Post. And that’s how it feels: Trump’s inherent racism and failure to have compassion for marginalized non-white groups in the past is just as relevant now and will continue.
