ADIOS, SUCKERS
No water & power, but feds can’t stay ‘forever’
With most of Puerto Rico unable to get safe drinking water after hurricane, Yanira Rios (above) is one of many forced to collect spring water. An unsympathetic President Trump told islanders to pick up the pace, because feds have other things to do.
HE TOLD residents of storm-ravaged Texas and Louisiana he’d be with them every day until they’ve rebuilt — and on Thursday, President Trump told residents of a still-devastated Puerto Rico their time is running out. In a series of early morning tweets, Trump complained about the island’s infrastructure problems in the wake of Hurricane Maria, and warned that he “cannot keep” federal relief workers there “forever.” The messages were sent three weeks after the storm hit, while more than 80% of the U.S. territory is still without power and almost half of its citizens do not have clean drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency said this week that desperate citizens have been going to toxic Superfund sites looking for drinking water. The hurricane is blamed for at least 45 deaths, and that number could rise into the hundreds. “The U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico are requesting the support that any of our fellow citizens would receive across our nation,” Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello tweeted later in the day. In his three tweets, Trump once again blamed Puerto Rico for its financial and infrastructure troubles, saying a “total lack of accountability” from its leaders made way for the Maria devastation. “Electric and all infrastructure was disaster before hurricanes,” he wrote. “Congress to decide how much to spend . . . We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!” The island has been wracked with debt following a decade-long recession. Trump’s tweets came a week after he made his first visit to the stormravaged island, during which he blamed the disaster for throwing the federal government’s budget “out of whack” with its relief needs. A GOP source told CNN Trump had lashed out in response to San Juan’s mayor complaining about the federal response. “The timing of the tweets coincide with her renewed criticism,” the source told CNN. The mayor, Carmen Yulin Cruz, who has been feuding with Trump over his handling of Maria, wrote that his tweets “about Puerto Rico are unbecoming of a Commander in Chief. “They seem to come more from a ‘Hater in Chief,’ ” she wrote. “It is not that you do not get it; you are incapable of fulfilling the moral im-
perative to help the people of PR. Shame on you!” Mayor de Blasio accused Trump of “denigrating the people of Puerto Rico” and “treating them as different than other Americans.” “There’s almost the exact same population in Puerto Rico as there is in the state of Connecticut, it’s almost 3.5 million people. If the state of Connecticut had 80% of its people (without) electricity, people were struggling to get food and water every day . . . the entire American military would be there saving people’s lives, helping them get back on their feet,” he said. “I think he’s just trying to avoid blame when he should recognize it’s his responsibility.” FEMA, which has been leading the relief efforts for Maria and other recent hurricanes, tried to reassure the territory. “FEMA will be w/Puerto Rico, USVI, every state, territory impacted by a disaster every day, supporting throughout their response & recovery,” public affairs deputy director Eileen Lainez tweeted, referencing the U.S. Virgin Islands and other areas also hit by Maria. “It’s fairly typical for FEMA, D.H.S. and other executive agencies to be on the ground running recovery operations for years to come,” James Norton, a former Department of Homeland Security official under President George W. Bush told The New York Times. The White House stood by Trump’s tweets, with chief of staff John Kelly insisting they were not as harsh as they sounded. Kelly said relief workers know they must move as quickly as possible to “work themselves out of a job.” He assured the United States would “stand with those American citizens in Puerto Rico until the job is done.” Trump has shown no impatience with the multibillion-dollar relief efforts in Southern U.S. states that were slammed by hurricanes over the summer. FEMA Administrator Brock Long has said that his agency was “gearing up for the next couple of years” in those states.