He’s rotten
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S response to storm ravaged Puerto Rico is a 10 — out of 100 — the mayor of San Juan snipped Friday.
Carmen Yulin Cruz’s comment came a day after Trump touted the job he’s done, even though 80% of the people do not have electricity, and many hospitals are still struggling to find enough power nearly a month after Hurricane Maria tore through.
“It is still a Cruz told CNN.
One-third of the U.S. territory’s 3.4 million residents still do not have access to clean drinking water.
Thousands remain in shelters set up after the storm.
“I think the President lives in an alternative reality world that only he believes the things that he’s saying,” Cruz said.
The Trump administration has faced sharp criticism for what many saw as slow relief and aid efforts — with Cruz becoming failing grade,” mired in a stormy feud with the President.
Trump made matters worse in the weeks following the Category 5 hurricane as he warned that Uncle Sam “cannot keep” federal relief efforts — such as FEMA and the military — in Puerto Rico “forever.”
Cruz has continuously challenged Trump in the wake of Maria’s devastation, leading the President to deem her “nasty.”
Trump also issued several tweets that appeared to blame Puerto Ricans for not doing more to help themselves.
Trump gave himself the high praise for the federal response during an Oval Office meeting with Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello on Thursday.
Asked how he thought his administration handled the crisis on a scale of 1 to 10, he said, “10.”
“It was probably the most difficult — when you talk about relief, when you talk about search, when you talk about all of the different levels, and even when you talk about lives saved,” Trump said of the storm. “If you look at the number, I mean this was, I think, it was worse than Katrina. It was in many ways worse than anything people have ever seen.”
As of Friday, 80% of the storm-ravaged island still has no electricity and only 62% of telecommunications have been restored.
Rossello said the death toll stood at 48.
Slightly more than half of all hospitals on the island are operating with electricity, according to Puerto Rico officials.
“FEMA personnel has admitted that they don’t have the generators they need to provide to hospitals, so hospitals are still running on inappropriate generators, even though FEMA had mentioned that the generators would be here,” Cruz said on Friday.
FEMA administrator Brock Long, also at Thursday’s Oval Office meeting, said that a “traditional recovery” on the island “is going to require a solution far greater than what FEMA typically puts down.”