I firmly believe that until some point today, President Trump did not fully comprehend the magnitude of what Puerto Rico is facing. I would not be surprised to learn that he was not aware until recently that Puerto Ricans are American citizens by birth - I've read that something like 40% or more of Americans don't know that. He spent the morning on Twitter insulting the Mayor of San Juan for complaining about the slow response, then insulted the Puerto Rican people by saying they "expect us to do everything for them".
For the past few hours, he has been tweeting a lot (I guess he's finished his golf game) about how well the relief effort is going and urged the people of Puerto Rico not to believe the "fake news" that says otherwise. They have no electricity - how are they watching the "fake news"?
Despite Trump's claim that all is going well is just another one of his lies; his own general in charge on the ground said yesterday that they don't have enough personnel or supplies to do the job they need to do. The US Army said that there are more people in Puerto Rico without water today than there were four days ago. These guys are busting their butts to do an almost impossible job given the people and resources they have, and Trump spent last weekend focused on the NFL and this weekend playing golf. This one has been bungled and bungled badly.
There is always a Trump tweet from the past that comes back to show his hypocrisy. From Nov 6, 2012, 8 days after Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of NY, NJ, and CT (Hurricane Maria hit PR 10 days ago):
"The federal gov. has handled Sandy worse than Katrina. There is no excuse why people don't have electricity and food yet."
His excuse for Maria? "It's an island, surrounded by water. Big water. Ocean water."
It's about 1000 miles from the mainland, less than the distance from NYC to Miami. We have planes, we have boats, we have helicopters. We have the greatest military in the world, and they are logistical geniuses, but you have to give them the resources to do the job you're asking them to do. There's no excuse.
God help Hawaii if they have a major disaster while Trump is in office...
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