Trump lashes out at Puerto Rico mayor
The president accused Carmen Yulín Cruz of “poor leadership” and implied that the island was not doing enough to help itself.
President Donald Trump lashed out at the mayor of San Juan on Saturday for criticizing his administration’s efforts to help Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, accusing her of “poor leadership” and implying that the island, which lacks electricity and has limited cellphone service, water and fuel in the wake of the storm, was not doing enough to help itself.
In a series of early-morning Twitter posts from his New Jersey golf club, where he is spending the weekend, Trump dismissed the statements by the capital’s mayor, Carmen Yulín Cruz, as political and asserted that his administration had organized a response by federal workers who are “doing a fantastic job.”
“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,” Trump wrote. “Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help.”
Trump said the people of Puerto Rico should not depend entirely on the federal government.
“They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort,” he wrote. “10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job. The military and first responders, despite no electric, roads, phones etc., have done an amazing job. Puerto Rico was totally destroyed.”
A top aide to the president later escalated the attack on the mayor with his own retweet of a message she had written during last year’s campaign endorsing Hillary Clinton over Trump. “@realDonaldTrump hater, the Mayor of San Juan — is the perfect example of an opportunistic politician,” wrote Dan Scavino Jr., the president’s social media director.
Responding to Trump’s tweets Saturday, Cruz said she would not be distracted by “small comments” and denied that she was attacking the president at the behest of the Democrats.
“Actually, I was asking for help,” she told MSNBC. “I wasn’t saying anything nasty about the president.”
She pointed to comments made on Friday by Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, who is leading the response effort and who said he did not have enough troops and equipment.
“So who am I?” Cruz asked. “I’m just a little mayor from the capital city of San Juan. This is a three-star general telling the world that right now he does not have the appropriate means and tools to take care of the situation.”
The attacks on the mayor generated a backlash from those who noted that the president was spending the weekend in the comfort of his golf club while Cruz was struggling to help her constituents on an island with no power.
“She has been working 24/7,” Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of “Hamilton,” the hit Broadway musical, wrote on Twitter. “You have been GOLFING. You’re going straight to hell. Fastest golf cart you ever took.” Miranda has relatives in Puerto Rico.
Russel L. Honoré, the retired lieutenant general who took over the response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 after an initially inadequate federal effort, also noted the president’s weekend retreat. “The mayor’s living on a cot, and I hope the president has a good day at golf,” he said on CNN.
The president was out of sight Saturday, secluded at his club in Bedminster, miles away from the pool of journalists who follow him, and aides would not say whether he was golfing.
But the seemingly slow response to the hurricane in Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth — especially compared with the federal response to storms in Texas and Florida — threatened to become a political crisis for Trump as critics compared it to President George W. Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina. Trump has alternated between expressions of resolve and concern on the one hand and angry recriminations against critics on the other.
It was not the first time that Trump had gone after other leaders even as they were dealing with a crisis. In June, the president accused the mayor of London of being soft on terrorism after assailants there killed eight people.
Cruz became a powerful voice of grievance Friday when she went on television to plead for help and reject assertions by the Trump administration about how well it was responding. She was incensed by comments made by Elaine Duke, acting secretary of the Homeland Security Department, who had said Thursday that it was “really a good news story in terms of our ability to reach people and the limited number of deaths” from the hurricane.
“This is, damn it, this is not a good news story,” Cruz said on CNN. “This is a ‘people are dying’ story. This is a ‘life or death’ story. This is ‘there’s a truckload of stuff that cannot be taken to people’ story. This is a story of a devastation that continues to worsen.”
Duke traveled to Puerto Rico on Friday and tried to smooth things over, agreeing that the situation on the ground was “not satisfactory.”
Buchanan, who arrived in Puerto Rico on Thursday to take over the hurricane response, said Friday that he needed more personnel and resources.
“The answer is no, it’s not enough and we’re bringing more in,” he said on CNN.
Buchanan said more helicopters, medical units and other resources would arrive soon, but declined to say whether the assistance should have been there earlier.
“It’s all coming,” he said. “It’s just going to take time to build up.”
Cruz, a member of the Popular Democratic Party, which advocates maintaining the island’s commonwealth status, was unmollified and went back on CNN on Friday night to continue her pleas for help.
“People are drinking out of creeks here in San Juan,” Cruz, wearing a black T-shirt that said, “Help Us, We Are Dying,” told host Anderson Cooper. “You have people that are in buildings, and they’re sort of becoming caged in their own buildings — old people, retired people that just don’t have any electricity.”
At least 16 people have died in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Maria, which came soon after Hurricane Irma, although that number could rise. The island has a population of 3.4 million, roughly the same as Connecticut. In addition to appointing Buchanan, the Trump administration has waived the Jones Act, a maritime commerce statute that was seen as a hindrance to relief efforts.
“We’re dying here,” Cruz said. “We truly are dying here. And I keep saying it, SOS. If anyone can hear us, if Mr. Trump can hear us, let’s just get it over with and get the ball rolling.”
Trump plans to travel to Puerto Rico with his wife, Melania, on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after the hurricane slammed into the island but the earliest he said he could get there without diverting resources from the rescue and recovery efforts. He said Saturday that he would also “hopefully be able to stop at the U.S. Virgin Islands,” where 100,000 U.S. citizens are also struggling to recover from even more severe storm devastation.
The president dismissed complaints about the federal response as distortions by the news media.
“Fake News CNN and NBC are going out of their way to disparage our great First Responders as a way to ‘get Trump,’ “he wrote on Twitter. “Not fair to FR or effort!”
A few hours later, he added, “Despite the Fake News Media in conjunction with the Dems, an amazing job is being done in Puerto Rico. Great people!”