After the devastation left by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, the President of the United States seemed to be trying to make matters worse by sending out 18 uncontrolled tweets, all ranging from insults aimed at San Juan’s Mayor to the people of Puerto Rico.
Trump goes after the Mayor of San Juan
After San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz denounced trump and the White House’s weak attempts at hurricane relief, the President took to Twitter to express his anger and clear embarrassment.
“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 Trump,” his tweet storm began.
He continued, “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.”
Trump’s tweets (“they want everything done for them”,) suggest that he doesn’t know Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, thus making the millions of people suffering in Puerto Rico American citizens.
Obviously, Trump is inexperienced in all things when it comes to humanitarian matters, but after Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma, he should be an expert in Hurricane relief. What makes Puerto Rico so different?
The President then decided to take aim at the “Fake News,” attacking CNN and NBC for allegedly taking the focus away from First Responders in Puerto Rico.
“Fake News CNN and NBC are going out of their way to disparage our great First Responders as a way to 'get Trump. Not fair to FR or effort!” he tweeted.
He later pushed the point forward by tweeting, “The Fake News Networks are working overtime in Puerto Rico doing their best to take the spirit away from our soldiers and first R's.
Shame!”
Of course, it should be noted that there is no evidence to back his tweets and claims up. In fact, CNN was on the ground in Puerto Rico reporting on the recovery efforts.
Tweets, or an attempt to divide the country
Trump is simply dividing the country, taking the focus away from the administration's poor reaction to the tragedy. In fact, he would later go further to attack the athletes likes Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem. Sorry, Mr. President, but the American citizens in Puerto Rico don’t have the time or the electricity to watch the NFL players refuse to take a knee while they are struggling to get food and water.
Trump’s twitter storm in response to Puerto Rico is nothing new.
The President has been known to take to Twitter in times of anger and frustration and often his tweets have no validation. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s difficult to watch the President of the United States throw a temper tantrum while there are people suffering - people that he should be helping.