Defensive Trump heads to Puerto Rico
Response criticism looms as president visits battered island
For days, President Trump has lashed out at anyone who dares to criticize his administration’s response to the hurricane that crippled Puerto Rico.
When he arrives on the stormbattered island on Tuesday, he will see the damage for himself.
Though the deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas prompted speculation that Trump might cancel the trip, the president confirmed he still plans plans to visit and defended his administration’s efforts to supply Puerto Rico with sufficient power, food, and potable water.
“It’s been amazing, what’s been done in a short period of time on Puerto Rico,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
After Trump’s protracted feud with the mayor of San Juan, the visit may prove a critical test of Trump’s leadership.
Trump earned generally high marks for his response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, but his public response to Puerto Rico immediately after of the storm has been strikingly different.
Trump, who hunkered down at Camp David to receive briefings about the Texas and Florida storms, frequently tweeted affir- mations of support for their victims. Yet in the days after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, there was relative silence from Trump on Twitter.
Last Monday, in his first tweet about Puerto Rico since the storm hit, Trump appeared to blame Puerto Rico’s electrical system and the territory’s ongoing bankruptcy for impeding relief efforts. Not only did this rankle local officials, it spawned enough domestic criticism that Trump was forced to clarify last Tuesday that he was not too “preoccupied” with Twitter attacks on football players who sit or kneel during the national anthem to monitor the storm.
Trump escalated the tensions with some local officials this weekend. In a Saturday morning tweetstorm, he claimed San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz – who had objected to the acting De- partment of Homeland Security chief calling Puerto Rico relief a “good news story” while people were dying on the ground – instructed by Democrats to “be nasty to Trump.”
“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,” he said Saturday. “They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.”
Trump’s unscripted public remarks have led critics to accuse him of exacerbating racial tensions.
After the violent white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., Trump blamed “both sides.” During his Twitter lectures on largely black NFL players who refuse to stand during the national anthem, Trump suggested that largely white team owners were “afraid” of the players. And his suggestions last week that Puerto Ricans were waiting for help rather than taking steps to repair the damage themselves left the impression he was criticizing Latino Americans.
Trump, who spent the weekend at his golf club in New Jersey, must prove he’s attentive to the damage on the ground, and persuade people he is doing all he can to help.
When he arrives on the island on Tuesday, he’s facing a dire picture. Only 45% of Puerto Rico customers had access to drinking water, according to the White House.
“It’s been amazing, what’s been done in a short period of time on Puerto Rico.”
President Trump on Monday