Just over three weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico, President Trump is already threatening to pull Federal aid and blaming the government of the U.S. territory for what happened:
WASHINGTON — President Trump suggested again on Thursday that Puerto Rico bore some of the blame for its current crisis following twin hurricanes, and warned that there were limits to how long he would keep troops and federal emergency workers on the island to help.
Mr. Trump, who has been criticized for a slow and not always empathetic response to the storms that ravaged the United States territory, sounded off in a series of early-morning Twitter posts. Angry about the criticism, he has sought to refocus blame to where he believes it belongs — the leadership of the island itself, which in his view mismanaged its affairs long before the winds blew apart its infrastructure.
“‘Puerto Rico survived the Hurricanes, now a financial crisis looms largely of their own making.’ says Sharyl Attkisson,” he wrote, citing the host of a public affairs show on Sinclair Broadcast Group television stations. “A total lack of accountability say the Governor. Electric and all infrastructure was disaster before hurricanes. Congress to decide how much to spend. We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!”
The threat may mean less than it appears — federal government officials quickly said that they were not pulling out of Puerto Rico anytime soon. But it provoked another wave of criticism from the island and its supporters who expressed astonishment that the president would assail the very people he was supposed to be assisting.
Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of the capital of San Juan who has been critical of Mr. Trump’s response and blasted by him in return, condemned his latest message as adding “insult to injury” and called on international organizations to step in to prevent “the genocide that will result from” Mr. Trump’s inaction.
“Tweet away your hate to mask your administration’s mishandling of this humanitarian crisis,” she said, addressing the president. “While you are amusing yourself throwing paper towels at us, your compatriots and the world are sending love and help our way. Condemn us to a slow death of nondrinkable water, lack of food, lack of medicine while you keep others eager to help from reaching us.”
Gov. Ricardo Rosselló was more restrained as he has been through previous rounds of criticism by Mr. Trump. After the tweets on Thursday morning, he called the White House and said he received assurances that the president fully supported recovery efforts in Puerto Rico.
“I reiterate my plea that, as U.S. citizens, we are not asking for better treatment or less treatment,” Mr. Rosselló said. “We are asking for equal treatment. We’re not asking for anything that another U.S. jurisdiction, having passed through the same situation, wouldn’t be asking at this juncture.”
Gov. Ricardo Rosselló was more restrained as he has been through previous rounds of criticism by Mr. Trump. After the tweets on Thursday morning, he called the White House and said he received assurances that the president fully supported recovery efforts in Puerto Rico.
“I reiterate my plea that, as U.S. citizens, we are not asking for better treatment or less treatment,” Mr. Rosselló said. “We are asking for equal treatment. We’re not asking for anything that another U.S. jurisdiction, having passed through the same situation, wouldn’t be asking at this juncture.”
Puerto Rico was already facing deep financial troubles before Hurricanes Irma and Maria swept across the island, knocking out many basic services. Three weeks after Maria hit, 83 percent of the island was still without power, 36 percent had no running water and 45 percent was without telecommunication services.
While some sort of normalcy has been restored in San Juan, residents of the more isolated interior municipalities were still struggling with a precarious health situation and problems with aid distribution. Although 86 percent of supermarkets are now open, the government could not ensure that they were fully stocked with food and water.
Here are the tweets in question:
“Puerto Rico survived the Hurricanes, now a financial crisis looms largely of their own making.” says Sharyl Attkisson. A total lack of…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2017
…accountability say the Governor. Electric and all infrastructure was disaster before hurricanes. Congress to decide how much to spend….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2017
…We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2017
The Governor of Puerto Rico was quick to respond:
The U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico are requesting the support that any of our fellow citizens would receive across our Nation.
— Ricardo Rossello (@ricardorossello) October 12, 2017
As was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer:
FEMA needs to stay until the job is done and right now, it's not even close to done.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) October 12, 2017
Why do you continue to treat Puerto Ricans differently than other Americans when it comes to natural disasters?
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) October 12, 2017
Trump is correct that Puerto Rico was in dire financial straits well before Maria came along, but his tweets seem to ignore some of the main reasons for that. Among the primary reasons are the financial obligations that Federal laws impose on the Commonwealth without providing for any real means for reimbursement from Congress. Additionally, the fact that Puerto Ricans are American citizens, and have been for a century now, means that citizens of the island are free to travel and move to the United States at any time, which means that the Commonwealth often loses many of its ‘best and brightest’ to the allure of a better life in the mainland United States. On top of all of that, changes that were made to Federal bankruptcy laws more than a decade ago meant that government-run entities and municipalities were not allowed to seek the same kind of bankruptcy protection that similar entities on the mainland are allowed to take advantage of as they always have been able to do. That law was changed somewhat last year and, as a result, there are several municipal bankruptcies pending in the Federal Courts that aimed to allow the island to reorganize its finances while seeking to reach a deal with creditors that will allow it continue to function.
In any event, even if Puerto Rico had been in much better financial condition, that would have been largely irrelevant once Hurricane Maria bored down on the island three weeks ago. When the storm hit, Maria was a strong Category 4 storm and it hit the island with the worst of its wind and rain. By the time the storm cleared, the vast majority of the island was without power, most residents didn’t have potable water, and areas outside the major cities were largely inaccessible due to damage to the road system. Even today, three weeks after the storm hit and while the attention of most Americans has shifted to other things, the situation remains desperate, with vast areas of the islands still without power or drinkable water and most authorities projecting it could be up to six months before power and water are restored to some parts of the island. Others are projecting that it will take a year of work and billions of dollars in aid to get the island back to where it was before the storm hit, never mind making the kind of repairs necessary to fix pre-existing problems with the power grid and other systems.
What’s notable, although probably not surprising, about the President’s reaction to the situation in Puerto Rico is how different it is to the reaction to the damage done just a few weeks before by Hurricane Harvey in southern Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida. In those case, Trump at least appeared to be on top of the situation and even to be empathetic to what was happening on the ground. In the case of Puerto Rico, Trump has been rather dismissive and has spent more time attacking the Mayor of San Juan and other government officials and blaming them for the situation and the difficulties that the Federal Government has had in responding to the disaster. A cynical person, of course, would conclude that the difference in treatment can be found in the fact that there are no Electoral Votes to seek in Puerto Rico and the island’s residents are not likely to be among his supporters. Whatever the reason, though, the attitude he’s displaying is hardly Presidential, but then that’s typical for him, isn’t it?
In any event, Trump’s tweets likely won’t amount to anything. Now that FEMA is on the ground, Federal law requires them to stay until they’ve dealt with the emergency created by the storm as completely as possible. To keep that in perspective, it should be noted that there are still FEMA representatives in Louisiana dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the BP Oil Spill in 2010 and in New Jersey and New York processing claims related to the impact of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Most likely, that will be true of the FEMA personnel still on the ground in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico due to the impact of three separate very strong storms over a three week period. Regardless of that point, though, the fact that an American President is talking about American citizens in this manner is something I’d call shocking, but then the standard for what qualifies as shocking is very different in the Trump Era. Today, what would have been shocking under another President is just “same stuff, different day” for this President. The only real question is what he’ll say or do next.
