President Donald Trump took time from his golf game to launch an attack on Carmen Yulin Cruz, the Mayor of San Juan, accusing her of “poor leadership” only a week after the country was hit by a category 4 hurricane.
The leader of the free world, was comfortably tweeting from a golf resort in New Jersey, where he claimed that the San Juan Mayor was told by the Democrats to be “nasty” to him before accusing her “poor leadership”. If that wasn’t enough, the President then topped it off by saying that the San Juan administration just wants everything to be done for then.
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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
…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. They….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/914089888596754434
The slew of tweets came shortly after the mayor launched a plea for help to the media, and accused Trump’s administration of a poor response after Hurricane Maria, claiming that they are “killing us with the inefficiency”. To this day, 16 people have been reported dead and 80% of the island is still without electricity.
Speaking at a news conference, Mrs. Yulin Cruz implored the president to “make sure somebody is in charge that is up to the task of saving lives.” With a heavy voice the Mayor continued by saying “We are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency. I am begging, begging anyone that can hear us, to save us from dying.”
The President, who is set to visit the U.S. territory this coming Tuesday, defended the work done by his administration in response to the storm, and said they are doing everything in their power to help but “unfortunately” the island is “surrounded by water, big water”, and local governments have been “totally and unfortunately unable to handle this catastrophic crisis on their own – just totally unable to.”
Earlier this week, Donald Trump took some time off from his NFL boycott campaign, to claim Puerto Rico’s problems are due to their debt and poor infrastructure, leaving the 3.5 million U.S. inhabitants of the island feeling uneasy about Washington’s commitment to provide help.
“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 organised, and what we will do with the tremendous amount of existing debt already on the island,” said the President.
Results of recovery efforts will speak much louder than complaints by San Juan Mayor. Doing everything we can to help great people of PR!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
A few thousand Puerto Ricans have already received food and water, and 30% of the island’s telecommunications are already back up. Unfortunately many residents are still desperate for water and power is still out on most the island, with hospitals relying on generators to keep the lights on. To make matters worse, the island is expecting heavy rains this weekend, turning the recover efforts into an even worse logistical nightmare.