More than a week after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the humanitarian crisis been getting progressively worse. The entire island’s power grid was destroyed in the hurricane. There is little to no cell service. Hospitals don’t have fuel to keep their generators running. More than 3 million people are without drinking water. Relief efforts have been hindered by blocked roads, a lack of diesel, and truck drivers being unable to reach the port where supplies sit.

Still, it was a surprise for most of Twitter and the world when on Saturday morning, they woke up to a set of critical tweets from President Trump about Puerto Rico.

“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,” he wrote in a series of three tweets.

“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 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 reaction on Twitter was a disbelieving, “Did he just attack the San Juan mayor and the people of Puerto Rico?”

San Juan mayor has been critical

Despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been struggling with the crisis in Puerto Rico.

This is due to the local government being unable to help with coordinating relief efforts. FEMA has also been criticized for being more concerned about bureaucracy than helping people.

That criticism has been coming from the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz. She has been vocal about FEMA’s and the United States government’s response.

She has done numerous interviews giving updates on the ground, and even gave a press conference asking FEMA to “get their ass moving,” according to Huff Post.

“I am going to do what I never thought I would do," the Huff Post reported San Juan Mayor Cruz saying. This was after she showed thick binders filled with FEMA’s requested reports, assessments and memos for aid, aka the bureaucracy the mayor was criticizing. "I am begging, begging anyone who can hear us to save us from dying.”

The president didn’t seem to see it that way.

Is Trump making Puerto Rico all about him?

The backlash to Trump’s tweets was instantaneous.

Other reporters said Trump was making the crisis all about himself.

The Atlantic's James Fallows wrote, “His first tweet, at the top of this item, dramatized his inability to conceive of any event, glorious or tragic, in terms other than what it means about him. People are dying in Puerto Rico; they have lost their homes and farms; children and the elderly are in danger. And what he sees is, ‘nasty to Trump.’”

The San Juan mayor, though being the main source of Trump’s criticism, had a more measured response. "It's not about politics, it's not about petty comments,” she said during an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid on her morning show AM Joy. “It’s about moving forward, putting boots on the ground and saving lives.”

Trump administration was slow to respond

While it took time to truly understand how bad the situation was in Puerto Rico, the administration also was delayed in their response, reports the Chicago Tribune.Last weekend, Trump headed to his golf course and then to Alabama for a rally for Luther Strange.

It was there he criticized NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem. That ate up the news cycle, and possibly took away coverage of what was happening with Puerto Rico. It wasn’t until the following Monday and after a series of bad headlines, that #Trump's attention turned to Puerto Rico, reports Chicago Tribune.

Unfortunately, Trump’s first remarks on the situation came off as callous and cold.

“Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble,” Trump wrote. “It’s old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities – and doing well.”

While the initial criticism of Trump’s response was negative, his latest tweets might make the criticism against him far worse.
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