I cannot imagine what it feels like to be an official in Puerto Rico right now, let alone what it must be like to be a citizen worried about getting food and water. It is a horrendous situation down there, and people will naturally get frustrated.
San Juan Mayor, Carmen Yulín Cruz, blasted the Trump administration after acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke asserted the federal response is “a good-news story in terms of our ability to reach people.” An exasperated Cruz said, “People are dying in this country. I am begging, begging anyone that can hear us, to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy.”
One could argue that these statements don’t do anybody any good. But it’s also a matter of perspective. If your city was nearly completely without power, lacked running water and essential services, you’d likely be emotional and wondering what’s taking so long. It’s not political. It’s human nature.
Leave it to President Trump to take it personally and lash out in a Twitter tantrum:
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
See that? Everything is fine as long as people are complimenting him.
…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
…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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
That’s nice. Make it seem like they’re just being lazy and don’t want to participate in the relief efforts. Good move, Mr. President.
Many have acted like idiots, attempting to make Hurricane Maria into Trump’s personal Katrina. Most of those people don’t have a clue of the difficulty there is in the logistics alone to get help there. So a lot of criticism was short-sighted and partisan political crap.
The President of the United States, however, should rise above such nonsense and go about doing his job. Unfortunately, our President is a whiny baby and cannot help himself. The worst part is, his core supporters will agree with him. Buried underneath all the garbage is the footsie he likes to play with the ugly part of his base.
The ones who don’t actually see Puerto Ricans as Americans. Trump knows this and that makes his comments all the more distasteful.
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