Says one critic, "The federal response has been abominable, has been criminal, and has been cruel.”
With still no visible signs that Donald Trump’s federal government is making a major difference in hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico, where it’s been more than a week since the island was obliterated, Trump has now embraced his role of media whiner.
Instead of trying to rally Americas around their fellow 3.4 million citizens on the suffering island, rather than urging everyone to pitch in, rather than expressing deep sympathies for the suffering of Puerto Ricans, Trump took to Twitter to offer up detached excuses for his slow-motion, Katrina-like response.
And to complain about the press.
FEMA & First Responders are doing a GREAT job in Puerto Rico. Massive food & water delivered. Docks & electric grid dead. Locals trying....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 28, 2017
...really hard to help but many have lost their homes. Military is now on site and I will be there Tuesday. Wish press would treat fairly!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 28, 2017
On Friday morning, rather than committing resources to Puerto Rico, Trump cautioned about the island’s future:
...The fact is that Puerto Rico has been destroyed by two hurricanes. Big decisions will have to be made as to the cost of its rebuilding!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 29, 2017
The growing response to Trump’s nonchalant inaction with regards to Puerto Rico ranges between anger, sadness, and complete disbelief that an Oval Office occupant could purposely do so little to help so many people in need.
While Trump’s acting Homeland Security head Elaine Duke boasts that the Puerto Rico effort represents a “really good news story,” those more in touch with reality express complete shock at the situation and warn that it’s slowly turning into a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.
Reading an email she received from Puerto Rico’s former governor, Rico Alejandro Garcia Padilla, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) recently informed colleagues, “Hospitals are on the verge of collapse … Patens are dying in their homes.”
According to Garcia, “Unless we see a dramatic increase in assistance and personnel reaching the island soon, many thousands could die.”
Even Fox News viewers recently received chilling assessment of the unfolding disaster.
“The federal response has been abominable, has been criminal, and has been cruel,” announced political strategist Jennice Fuentes.
Jennice Fuente on hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico: "People are going hungry. People are going thirsty. There's babies dying in hospitals." pic.twitter.com/q13upBQTm7
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 28, 2017
Based on his inaction for more than a week after Hurricane Maria struck, it seems increasingly clear that Trump is taking a deliberately passive response to the U.S. commonwealth where, last November, voters overwhelmingly supported his political opponent. Compare Trump’s subdued response to Puerto Rico to the laser-like focus Trump had when hurricanes battered the red states of Texas and Florida late this summer.
Even when Trump has publicly addressed the island disaster, at times he’s seemed to blame the commonwealth. This week he tweeted about how Puerto Rico already suffered from “broken infrastructure & massive debt” before the hurricane hit.
Wrote Raul A. Reyes at CNN.com: “The devastation there has been described as 'apocalyptic' — and Trump is concerned about what the territory owes to Wall Street and the banks? The lack of empathy is staggering.”
Staggering, indeed.
