Trump Lashes Out at San Juan Mayor Who Begged for More Help

Democratic Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi said the president’s tweets “attacking the Puerto Rican people and the Mayor of San Juan are abhorrent, baseless, and are beneath the dignity of the office of the Presidency. Although unsurprising and quite predictable, it is pathetic that the President has decided to attack – with the not so subtle veil of racism and sexism – those desperately begging for his help in their hour of need. “

Trump said Friday that Puerto Rico was “totally unable” to handle the catastrophe on its own. “They are working so hard, but there’s nothing left,” he said. “It’s been wiped out.” He said the government is “fully engaged in the disaster and the response and recovery effort.”

Yet even in voicing solidarity and sympathy with Puerto Rico, he drew attention again to the island’s debt burden and infrastructure woes, leaving doubt about how far Washington will go to make the U.S. territory whole.

“Ultimately the government of Puerto Rico will have to work with us to determine how this massive rebuilding effort — it will end up being one of the biggest ever — will be funded and organized, and what we will do with the tremendous amount of existing debt already on the island,” he said. “We will not rest, however, until the people of Puerto Rico are safe.”

Trump has repeatedly boasted about the positive reviews he said his administration was getting from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for its relief effort, even as people in remote towns struggle to find food, water and other basics. Then Trump’s acting homeland security secretary, Elaine Duke, called the federal relief effort a “good-news story” because of “our ability to reach people and the limited number of deaths.”

“Let me clarify,” she said Friday upon her arrival in Puerto Rico to survey the damage. She said she meant “it was good news that people of Puerto Rico and many public servants of the United States are working together.”

Cruz responded, “This is a people-are-dying story.”