Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
President Trump critical of island’s leaders.
BRANCHBURG, N.J. — President Donald Trump on Saturday lashed out at the mayor of San Juan and other officials in stormravaged Puerto Rico, contemptuous of their claims of a slow U.S. response to the natural disaster sparked by Hurricane Maria.
Trump, spending the weekend at his golf resort in New Jersey, attacked Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz for “poor leadership” and accused her of conspiring with Democrats to criticize his administration, without substantiation.
Trump’s series of tweets aimed to deflect blame for the deepening humanitarian crisis on the island and to cast the mounting criticism against him as partisan attacks — from local officials, political rivals and the media.
“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 on Twitter. In another message, he added that Cruz and other local officials “want everything to be done for them.”
The outbursts came as Trump bristled over accusations from local officials that the federal government has not moved quickly enough to provide support and aid amid widespread power outages that have left residents without air conditioning, while food, drinking water and other basic necessities are in short supply. At least 16 people have died since the storm struck Sept. 20, with many others in critical condition.
“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 tweeted a day after Cruz appealed for help “to save us from dying.”
After 10 days of desperation, Cruz accused the Trump administration Friday of “killing us with the inefficiency.” She implored the president, who is set to visit the U.S. territory on Tuesday, to “make sure somebody is in charge that is up to the task of saving lives.”
Trump has said he’s doing everything possible to help the “great people of PR!” and also repeatedly applauded his own government’s recovery efforts, saying military personnel and first responders have done “an amazing job,” despite the significant logistical challenges.
Cruz declined Saturday to engage in the tit-for-tat, instead calling for a united focus on the people who need help. “The goal is one: saving lives . ... We cannot be distracted by anything else,” she tweeted, along with photos of herself meeting with residents and rescue workers, wading hip-deep through a flooded street and comforting an elderly woman.
In an apparent bid to isolate Cruz politically, Trump spoke by phone Saturday afternoon with Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello and U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp and later praised both of them on Twitter. Trump called Rossello a “great guy” and said Mapp told him the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the military “are doing a GREAT job!”
And Trump reaffirmed that he and first lady Melania Trump intend to travel Tuesday to Puerto Rico, with a possible stop in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which also is recovering from hurricane damage.
“Do not believe the #FakeNews!” Trump wrote on Twitter in the afternoon.
Trump’s administration has tried to combat the perception that he failed to quickly grasp the magnitude of Maria’s destruction and has given the U.S. territory less attention than he bestowed on states including Texas, Louisiana and Florida after they were hit by hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
Trump on Saturday spoke by phone from New Jersey with FEMA Administrator Brock Long. But after a week of growing criticism, the president’s patience appears to be waning.
The president’s tone provoked a major backlash among Democrats, community leaders and celebrities who lambasted him for casting blame and appearing insensitive to the suffering of U.S. citizens.
Many of the strongest critiques came from female lawmakers, including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, DNev., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, DCalif.
Trump is going “straight to hell,” tweeted Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the musical “Hamilton.”
White House officials distributed an email stating that 10,000 federal workers are on the island and that recovery workers have cleared 11 major highways and 50 percent of the major roadways. The military is airdropping supplies to remote regions in the mountains.
Yet the White House’s own statistics showed how much work remains: Just 45 percent of residents have access to drinking water and just 49 percent of grocery and big box stores and 60 percent of gas stations have reopened.