Trump launches new attack on Puerto Rico ‘ingrates’
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Donald Trump continued to inflame a controversy over his administration’s slow response to a humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico, calling local officials pleading for help in the devastated US territory “ingrates” from the plush surroundings of his New Jersey golf club. In a weekend Twitter barrage the US president branded media reports of people struggling to obtain food and water more than a week after Hurricane Maria “fake news” and lashed out at critics in Puerto Rico.
“We have done a great job with the almost impossible situation in Puerto Rico. Outside of the Fake News or politically motivated ingrates, people are now starting to recognize the amazing work that has been done by [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] and our great Military,” the president tweeted on Sunday.The main target of Mr Trump’s ire has been the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz, for issuing a plea for help on Friday. In that appeal she criticised the US federal government’s response to Hurricane Maria, which has left much of the island without power for a week and people struggling to secure basic necessities.
“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,” Mr Trump said on Saturday, accusing opposition Democrats of urging the mayor to “be nasty to Trump”. “[Puerto Rican officials] 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,” the president said.
The president’s weekend riposte came after growing criticism of his administration’s response to the disaster, which is increasingly being compared with George W Bush’s infamously slow reaction to Hurricane Katrina and the damage it wrought on New Orleans in 2005. The president has also been criticised for displaying a more muted sense of urgency toward the crisis than he did after hurricanes Harvey and Irma hit Texas and Florida over the summer. Mr Trump has sought to appear more hands-on.
He is scheduled to visit the island next week and on Saturday he had telephone calls with officials in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands from his weekend retreat at the exclusive Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he has spent many weekends in recent months. In tweets and discussions with journalists Mr Trump, whose company managed a Puerto Rican golf resort until it went into bankruptcy in 2015, has accused officials on the island — which has been trying to work its way out of a prolonged debt crisis — of mismanagement.
He has also been slow to set out how the federal government might help Puerto Rico, whose 3.4m residents are US citizens although the island is not a state and does not have full representation in Congress. Pointing to that tone, Saturday’s tweets, and his greater recent focus on other issues such as American football players protesting racial injustice by kneeling during the playing of the national anthem, critics have also questioned whether Mr Trump’s response has been coloured by race.“The people of Puerto Rico are American citizens and entitled to the same help as any other American community . . . . I think we have a right to be suspect that he is treating the people of Puerto Rico differently,” former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said on Sunday.
The backstoryFT correspondent Eric Platt selects the stories that best explain the depth of Puerto Rico’s problems, even before the island was hit by Hurricane Maria© AFPPuerto Rico: An island’s exodusPuerto Rico files for record US debt restructuringPuerto Ricans in overwhelming vote for island to be 51st US state Ricardo Rosselló, Puerto Rico’s young governorThe president and his aides have also hit out at critics, insisting that the federal response was proceeding more smoothly than was being portrayed in the media.
“The Fake News Networks are working overtime in Puerto Rico doing their best to take the spirit away from our soldiers and first [responders]. Shame!” the president said in one of the messages he posted on Saturday. Mr Trump’s efforts to blame the messenger have been undermined by reports of the devastation on the ground and the pleas for help from local officials such as the mayor of San Juan, the island’s biggest city.
“We are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy,” Ms Cruz said on Friday at a news conference during which she highlighted the contrast between the corporate generosity the island had seen and a paltry federal response that included just four pallets of water overnight on Thursday for a city of more than 380,000. "I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell," Ms Cruz said.
In an interview Ms Cruz said that she had never mentioned the president in her plea on Friday. “I was asking for help. I wasn’t saying anything nasty about the president,” she told MSNBC. “This is a time when everyone shows their true colours. I have no time for distractions. All I have is time for people to move forward, get help.”After speaking with officials on Saturday Mr Trump continued the attacks on San Juan’s mayor but praised the island’s governor, who has not criticised the federal response.
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Donald Trump continued to inflame a controversy over his administration’s slow response to a humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico, calling local officials pleading for help in the devastated US territory “ingrates” from the plush surroundings of his New Jersey golf club. In a weekend Twitter barrage the US president branded media reports of people struggling to obtain food and water more than a week after Hurricane Maria “fake news” and lashed out at critics in Puerto Rico.
“We have done a great job with the almost impossible situation in Puerto Rico. Outside of the Fake News or politically motivated ingrates, people are now starting to recognize the amazing work that has been done by [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] and our great Military,” the president tweeted on Sunday.The main target of Mr Trump’s ire has been the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz, for issuing a plea for help on Friday. In that appeal she criticised the US federal government’s response to Hurricane Maria, which has left much of the island without power for a week and people struggling to secure basic necessities.
“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,” Mr Trump said on Saturday, accusing opposition Democrats of urging the mayor to “be nasty to Trump”. “[Puerto Rican officials] 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,” the president said.
The president’s weekend riposte came after growing criticism of his administration’s response to the disaster, which is increasingly being compared with George W Bush’s infamously slow reaction to Hurricane Katrina and the damage it wrought on New Orleans in 2005. The president has also been criticised for displaying a more muted sense of urgency toward the crisis than he did after hurricanes Harvey and Irma hit Texas and Florida over the summer. Mr Trump has sought to appear more hands-on.
He is scheduled to visit the island next week and on Saturday he had telephone calls with officials in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands from his weekend retreat at the exclusive Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he has spent many weekends in recent months. In tweets and discussions with journalists Mr Trump, whose company managed a Puerto Rican golf resort until it went into bankruptcy in 2015, has accused officials on the island — which has been trying to work its way out of a prolonged debt crisis — of mismanagement.
He has also been slow to set out how the federal government might help Puerto Rico, whose 3.4m residents are US citizens although the island is not a state and does not have full representation in Congress. Pointing to that tone, Saturday’s tweets, and his greater recent focus on other issues such as American football players protesting racial injustice by kneeling during the playing of the national anthem, critics have also questioned whether Mr Trump’s response has been coloured by race.“The people of Puerto Rico are American citizens and entitled to the same help as any other American community . . . . I think we have a right to be suspect that he is treating the people of Puerto Rico differently,” former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said on Sunday.
The backstoryFT correspondent Eric Platt selects the stories that best explain the depth of Puerto Rico’s problems, even before the island was hit by Hurricane Maria© AFPPuerto Rico: An island’s exodusPuerto Rico files for record US debt restructuringPuerto Ricans in overwhelming vote for island to be 51st US state Ricardo Rosselló, Puerto Rico’s young governorThe president and his aides have also hit out at critics, insisting that the federal response was proceeding more smoothly than was being portrayed in the media.
“The Fake News Networks are working overtime in Puerto Rico doing their best to take the spirit away from our soldiers and first [responders]. Shame!” the president said in one of the messages he posted on Saturday. Mr Trump’s efforts to blame the messenger have been undermined by reports of the devastation on the ground and the pleas for help from local officials such as the mayor of San Juan, the island’s biggest city.
“We are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy,” Ms Cruz said on Friday at a news conference during which she highlighted the contrast between the corporate generosity the island had seen and a paltry federal response that included just four pallets of water overnight on Thursday for a city of more than 380,000. "I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell," Ms Cruz said.
In an interview Ms Cruz said that she had never mentioned the president in her plea on Friday. “I was asking for help. I wasn’t saying anything nasty about the president,” she told MSNBC. “This is a time when everyone shows their true colours. I have no time for distractions. All I have is time for people to move forward, get help.”After speaking with officials on Saturday Mr Trump continued the attacks on San Juan’s mayor but praised the island’s governor, who has not criticised the federal response.
LickingGravity
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Culioneros said:High schools are now following Trump’s order. Will kick off any players who don’t stand during the National Anthem.
Master Waylon Bates in Louisiana - if this isn't the center of Bubbaville it is not far from it.
Trump support is largely from the under 100 IQ crowd.
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cristycurves
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^ "center of Bubbaville".....LMAO!!!
But don't forget the 1%, they too were responsible for bringing Trump to rule and it is they who'll benefit from his tax proposals, that he "claims" "won't do him any benefit at all", another quote that is laughable
But don't forget the 1%, they too were responsible for bringing Trump to rule and it is they who'll benefit from his tax proposals, that he "claims" "won't do him any benefit at all", another quote that is laughable
papasmerf
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cristycurves said:^ "center of Bubbaville".....LMAO!!!
But don't forget the 1%, they too were responsible for bringing Trump to rule and it is they who'll benefit from his tax proposals, that he "claims" "won't do him any benefit at all", another quote that is laughable
Does not benefit me
blackram
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cristycurves said:^ "center of Bubbaville".....LMAO!!!
But don't forget the 1%, they too were responsible for bringing Trump to rule and it is they who'll benefit from his tax proposals, that he "claims" "won't do him any benefit at all", another quote that is laughable
His base is the racist "Deplorables" that Hillary talked about. But the majority of his voters were just anti-Hillary. They would've voted for someone else, if Hillary wasn't running for the Democrats. A lot of Trump voters were willing to vote for Bernie, for example, if that choice had been presented them. Hillary is the only politician that seemed to think that she didn't need to go campaigning, and the votes would automatically come her way. Everytime she's run, she has started out popular, and that popularity has plummeted throughout the campaign. Her popularity always goes down, never goes up. She had 8 years to think about how to improve her campaign between her loss to Obama in 2008, to her 2016 campaign, and she decided nothing needed to change, she was entitled to the presidency.
Also BTW wasn't Bill Clinton known as "Bubba"?
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cristycurves
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papasmerf said:
Is Hilary in the white house, is she the President? I thought this was a Trump thread.....funny how Trumptys just can't get Hilary off their minds. But maybe now with all his lies, buffonery and stupiness, they've realized the big mistake they made voting for their baby hands, I want it my way, Russiian lovin, Trumpty
Those who listen to Limbaugh need more medication than those who voted for Trump. Whether or not Bill Clinton was referred to as "Bubba" , I'm not sure. However I'm sure of he were it wasn't in the same context....
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papasmerf
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cristycurves said:Is Hilary in the white house, is she the President? I thought this was a Trump thread.....funny how Trumptys just can't get Hilary off their minds. But maybe now with all his lies, buffonery and stupiness, they've realized the big mistake they made voting for their baby hands, I want it my way, Russiian lovin, Trumpty
She thinks she won.
You seem to think she should have.
Good news is she lost.
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cristycurves
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And the bad news is that Trump one, rather Russia won
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cristycurves
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Funny how you often insert verbs, adjectives and sometimes nouns into my responses......or twist them to prove your point, which is usually rather dull.....get it, lol:wink2: But back to Russia.....obviously the obvious isn't so obvious to those who follow alternative factspapasmerf said:
papasmerf
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cristycurves said:Funny how you often insert verbs, adjectives and sometimes nouns into my responses......or twist them to prove your point, which is usually rather dull.....get it, lol:wink2: But back to Russia.....obviously the obvious isn't so obvious to those who follow alternative facts
So explain it
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cristycurves
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Why don't you explain how he isn't connected to Russia, and then explain how all those who've found the Russia hacks are wrong. Then show me proof of your God, or Jesus or the other name he also usesSince we're jumping around topics in this thread
Since we're jumping around topics in this thread