Trump actually treats Puerto Rico like garbage
The disastrous "joke" was more than that.
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“Nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do” Donald Trump blathered at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, earlier this week.
Trump was trying to defuse remarks made at his Madison Square Garden don’t-call-it-a-Nazi-rally by bigoted shock jock comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who got up on his hind legs and called Puerto Rico “an island of garbage”. (There was no discernible punch line.)
Hinchcliffe’s disgusting statement about Puerto Rico broke through in mainstream media in a way that other equally hateful statements from the Trump campaign (even other hateful statements at the MSG event) have not. That’s in part because the Puerto Rican community, on the island and off, pushed back forcefully. Following Hinchcliffe’s set, Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, and Ricky Martin all endorsed Kamala Harris’s pro-Puerto Rican message and shared it with their combined 314 million Instagram followers.
As the blowback intensified, Trump distanced itself from Hinchcliffe in a pro forma way; the campaign issued a bland statement saying, “this joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” During his bizarre garbage man stunt on Wednesday, Trump also said he didn’t know Hinchcliffe — a typically irrelevant, cowardly response. (Watch below.)
Predictably, that was not enough for Archbishop Roberto González of San Juan, who issued a statement asking Trump to apologize personally. Reggaeton star Nicky Jam also withdrew his endorsement of Trump.
“Puerto Rico should be respected,” he said.
While Trump may now claim "I've done more for Puerto Rico than any president by far,” the fact of the matter is he has a record of treating the territory like, well, garbage. Trump’s first presidency was actually a disaster for Puerto Rico and Hinchcliffe’s comments weren’t an accident. They accurately reflect how Trump thinks about the island and the American citizens who live there.
Hurricane Maria
On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria, a category 4 and possibly category 5 storm, made landfall in Puerto Rico. The results were catastrophic. The hurricane dropped 15 to 30 inches of rain. At least 30 rivers on the island flooded. Wind speeds couldn’t be recorded because all the wind sensors on the island were destroyed, but estimates suggest they were at least 133 miles per hour.
Cell phone communication was impossible, because 95 percent of cell towers were damaged. Virtually all road signs and traffic lights were destroyed. A month after the hurricane, only 8 percent of the island’s roads were open. Five months afterwards, a quarter of Puerto Rico’s residents did not have electricity. Three years later, thousands were still homeless because of the storm. Damage was estimated at $90 billion. There was no official death toll, but experts estimate at least 4,600 people died.
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This nightmarish tragedy was exacerbated by the fact that the Trump administration failed to provide timely aid. An inspector general’s report in 2021 concluded that under Trump, the government delayed $20 billion in hurricane relief aid for months.
The reason for the delay is still not entirely clear, but broadly it appears that the executive branch imposed a series of needless bureaucratic hurdles to providing assistance. The Office of Management and Budget demanded an interagency review before approval, which had never been instituted before when disaster relief was at issue. The 2018-2019 government shutdown also slowed action.
It's always difficult to get the government to move quickly and efficiently. But part of the job of the president is to set priorities during a crisis and make sure the executive branch leaps into action when leaping is needed. Trump has little concern for the suffering of American people, though — especially when the people in question aren’t able to vote for him even if they wanted to.
Officials and people on the island criticized the slow administration response. And, inevitably, Trump responded to criticism not by trying to help people in need, but by attacking.
Trump insults Puerto Rico (the first time)
In the aftermath of the Hurricane, San Juan’s mayor, Carmen Yulín Cruz, issued a desperate plea for aid.
“I am begging you. Begging anyone that can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening, we are dying. And you are killing us with the inefficiency,” she said.
Trump responded by saying Cruz was “nasty” (his go-to insult for women who question him). He added that Puerto Rico officials showed “poor leadership ability” and sneered that they “want everything to be done for them.” In other tweets, he suggested that hurricane damage was caused by Puerto Rico’s “poor infrastructure” and “massive debt” and said that those faulting the relief effort were “politically motivated ingrates.”
To highlight the success of his (bungled, inadequate, unsuccessful) relief efforts, Trump traveled to Puerto Rico in early October, where he visited a church to oversee aid distribution and infamously tossed paper towels into the crowd. He also repeatedly applauded his own administration for keeping the death toll low; at the time only 16 deaths had been confirmed. But even in the early days, it was clear that the toll would be much higher. Trump simply didn’t care.
Trump awarded himself an “A+” and said, “we only heard thank yous from the people of Puerto Rico.”
Trump wanted to trade Puerto Rico for Greenland
Trump’s trips to Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria did not lead him to feel empathy for the people or appreciation for the island. On the contrary, according to former DHS official Miles Taylor, Trump after his visit called the island “dirty.” He then asked if it could be traded.
Trump apparently had long had the preposterous idea of acquiring the Danish territory of Greenland and at various points suggested somehow exchanging it for Puerto Rico. Journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glaser reported that Trump told them, “I love maps. And I always said: ‘Look at the size of this. It’s massive. That should be part of the United States.’” (On the most popular map projection, the Mercator Projection, Greenland looks much bigger than it is. Most children learn this in elementary school.)
John Bolton, Trump’s National Security Advisor, actually formed a team to consider possible paths to acquiring Greenland in order to oppose Chinese influence in the Arctic. Nothing came of any of this because the whole thing is ridiculous. Trump wants Greenland because he doesn’t know how maps work. And (less amusingly) he wants to get rid of Puerto Rico because Puerto Rico is home to people who aren’t white, and Trump is a racist who thinks non-white people are “dirty.”
Trump will harm Puerto Ricans, and all Americans
Trump’s history with Puerto Rico is one of comingled incompetence, ignorance, contempt, racism, and bullying. He neglected the island when it faced a major crisis, and then became enraged when people in desperate need pointed out that he was not helping. He feels he is entitled to praise and abasement, especially from people who aren’t white, and when he doesn’t receive sufficient deference, he lashes out in vicious and grotesque ways.
Tellingly, instead of denouncing Hinchcliffe’s joke, Trump’s response to the MSG debacle was to hold a staged roundtable event in Pennsylvania where a Puerto Rican slathered him with praise, saying, “Puerto Rico stands behind you, and Puerto Rico loves you.” (Watch below.)
This is characteristic of the way Trump handles everything. His failures with Hurricane Maria foreshadowed his failures with the covid pandemic. His inability to understand maps echoes his (more consequential) inability to understand his own tariff proposals. His casual, bone-deep racism has been a core of his political identity ever since he entered public life.
Hinchcliffe’s joke, and Trump’s response, reminded Puerto Ricans that Trump hates them. But he doesn’t just hate Puerto Ricans. He hates all of us. If you don’t flatter Trump and end up needing anything from him, he will throw paper towels at you, then turn on you like a rabid dog. Puerto Ricans, and all Americans, deserve better.
That’s it for this week
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This election is about protecting white privilege and their wealth. Christian Nationalism is about the oppression of women. Project/Chattel 2025 is the 'how to' make it into law. The Christian Nationalists that sit on our highest court in the land, will make this happen.
When will the Civil War end in this country?? Apparently, not anytime soon, when half the population supports a racist, misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic, diaper wearing, sold America to highest bidder, grifting malignant narcissist psychopath rapist. That's the problem with ignorant people. They're not aware of their ignorance. No excuses! It's a choice to be dumber than a bag of doorknobs. In addition, to just being a lazy, apathetic, hateful asshole. For fucks sake, I hope we're better than that come Tuesday.
Trump’s desperate scramble to divert attention from his MSG Nazifest, and his cos play as garbage man, can’t disguise his “vision” of America as whites (and males) only: Everyone else is subhuman … unless they swear obeisance.