Trump talks up Puerto Rico relief efforts but ignores critics
SAN JUAN:
Touring a small slice of Hurricane Maria’s devastation, President Donald Trump congratulated Puerto Rico for escaping the higher death toll of “a real catastrophe like Katrina” and heaped praise on the relief efforts of his administration without mentioning the sharp criticism the federal response has drawn.
“Really nothing short of a miracle,” he said of the recovery, an assessment at odds with the despair of many still struggling to find water and food outside the capital city in wide swaths of an island where only 5% of electricity customers have power back.
The governor of Puerto Rico said late Tuesday that the official death toll has been increased to 34 from 16.
In the heart of San Juan, in fact, a few miles from the air base where Trump gave his thumbs-up report on progress, people stacked sewage-fouled clothes and mattresses outside houses and businesses lacking electricity nearly two weeks after the storm.
“Nobody’s come,” said Ray Negron, 38, collecting debris in the Playita neighbourhood.
Trump pledged an all-out effort to help the island while adding, somewhat lightly: “Now I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack because we’ve spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico. And that’s fine. We’ve saved a lot of lives.”
The visit offered fresh evidence of the unconventional path Trump has taken in responding to the one-two-three punch from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
His effusive praise for federal relief efforts has overshadowed his displays of empathy for those who are suffering. And in Puerto Rico, in particular, his criticism of local people for not doing more to help themselves has struck an off note during a time of crisis.
Trump said his visit was “not about me” but then praised local officials for offering kind words about his administration’s recovery effort and invited one to repeat the “nice things” she’d said earlier.
“Every death is a horror,” he said, “but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina and you look at the tremendous, hundreds of and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here with, really, a storm that was just totally overpowering, nobody has ever seen anything like this.”
He told local officials “you can be very proud of all your people, all of our people working together”.
Trump’s most prominent critic in Puerto Rico, San Juan Ma yor Carmen Yulin Cruz, joined other officials at the air base for a briefing with him, shook the president’s hand and said afterwards she hoped he now understood the gravity of the situation.
But his comment implying Maria was not a Katrina-level event left her unsure.
“Sometimes his style of communication gets in the way,” she told CNN.
“I would hope that the president of the United States stops spouting comments that really hurt the people of Puerto Rico.”
On a more positive note, Cruz said: “I saw a real connection between the reality and the White House staff. I think they finally understood.”
Air Force One brought the president, First Lady Melania Trump and aides to Puerto Rico for a tour stretching through the afternoon.
Trump visited with selected families wait- ing on their lawns on a street lined with debris, including tree limbs and corrugated metal siding.
Trump posed for photos, asked the residents what it was like during the storm and pledged his assistance.
On the flight back to Washington, Trump told reporters he’d heard no criticism while on the ground.
“No, we only heard thank you’s from the people of Puerto Rico,” he said, adding, “I think it meant a lot to the people of Puerto Rico that I was there.” — AP