Trump Treating Us Like 'Dogs,' Say Puerto Ricans
Source: Newsweek
BY GRAHAM LANKTREE ON 10/4/17 AT 6:13 AM
During the hours he spent in Puerto Rico Tuesday President Donald Trump threw paper towels to needy people and handed out flashlights while joking "you don't need them anymore," despite the fact that 94 percent of the island still has no power.
The presidents behaviour led some Puerto Ricans to say he was treating them like second class citizens.
He arrives with a smile on his face, makes fun of the situation, shows no empathy, lies and lies on camera as he does 24-7. And then throws paper towel rolls to people in need as if he was playing Go Fetch with dogs, Joel Isaac, a Puerto Rican who moved to New York three years ago told The Toronto Star. Most of Isaacs family still live on the island.
Does he think this is a show? A game? The first reaction that I had: why is he throwing things to Puerto Ricans like were animals? said Frances Alvarado, a Puerto Rican living in North Carolina.
The president was also greeted by pre-selected families as he met them in front of their homes on the island. Thank you for being here, it's so good to see you, one man told the president in Spanish.
Trump has been criticized for his administrations reaction time to deliver relief efforts on the island and for taking two weeks to visit the disaster zone where 3.5 million American citizens live. The president visited Texas and Florida within days after they were respectively hit by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in August and September.
Link to tweet
The mayor of Puerto Ricos capital and largest city San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, called out Trump last week after aid was slow to arrive. Dammit, this is not a good-news story. This is a people-are-dying story, Yulin Cruz said during an interview with CNN last Friday.
This is a life or death story. This istheres a truck load of stuff that cannot be taken to people story. This is a story of a devastation that continues to worsen because people are not getting food and water.
Trump then slammed Cruz for her criticism, accusing her of poor leadership in the wake of the disaster.
The federal response has been very slow and uncoordinated, Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), a ranking member of the subcommittee on maritime transportation, told Newsweek of efforts to get aid to the island last week. What needs to be done is freight movement on the island itself. Officials said aid was slow moving and poorly organized.
Nevertheless, Puerto Rico hadnt experienced the death toll of a real catastrophe like Katrina after Hurricane Mariaa Category 5 stormmade landfall there nearly two weeks ago, Trump said Tuesday. Later in the day the U.S. territory's governor increased the official death toll from the storm from 16 to 34.
[The] operative question here is how many have died during the ensuring response, when they *could have been saved.* We don't yet know, wrote Jeremy Konyndyk, chief of foreign disaster assistance during the Obama administration on Twitter Tuesday following Trumps comments. Claiming the response was fine and dandy when most of the island was (and is) without power and water? That's on him, Konyndyk wrote.
Only 45 percent of people have access to drinking water on the island. The islands Governor Ricardo Rossello says he hopes 25 percent of residents will have their electricity restored by the end of October, estimating the total cost of damage across the island at $90 billion. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says it now has 10,000 federal officials helping out in Puerto Rico.
After his visiting the island Tuesday Trump said he had a "terrific visit" and the islands residents are so thankful for what we've done, telling reporters on Air Force One that we only heard thank-yous.
You've thrown our budget a little out of whack, Trump told a meeting of officials, including Governor Rossello Tuesday, because we've spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico.
###
Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/trump-treating-us-dogs-say-puerto-ricans-677227
Full article posted with the permission of Newsweek - Don
whathehell
(29,084 posts)Even Joe Scar remarked on that ugly scene with the paper towels..."like he was throwing crumbs to peasants".
Rollo
(2,559 posts)Because Melania needs all those paper towels to remove her makeuup...
.
dalton99a
(81,568 posts)groundloop
(11,521 posts)WHAT A FUCKING MORON!!!!! Someone needs to hit him upside the head with a 2x4 and knock a little sense into his pea-sized brain.
PatSeg
(47,567 posts)he is a terrible actor. He can't even fake compassion for a short period of time. His ugly personality always comes through. He turned this tragedy into a Trump event, not about Puerto Rico and their suffering.
SHRED
(28,136 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,756 posts)Every day we see him whittle away at the greatness of the office.
DinahMoeHum
(21,806 posts)Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)He does not represent your fellow Americans! We are desperately concerned for your wellbeing!
His behavior yesterday was an embarrassment. He should have just sent a check. Whole damn family is a walking train wreck.
Where is the vaudeville hook?
samnsara
(17,634 posts)Bayard
(22,128 posts)This is the only time tRrump's tiny hands have ever touched a paper towel. Other people always clean up his messes.
True_Blue
(3,063 posts)Because their lives are in the hands of a malignant narcissistic POTUS right now. I don't understand why the citizens of PR don't have the right to vote in the Presidential election, especially since their lives literally depend on it.
I wish Congress or Mueller would hurry up and impeach him. He's a cruel man and not fit to be POTUS.
Wuddles440
(1,126 posts)to "have a good time" like this nightmare is some kind of wine and cheese party. Tillerson is way too generous referring to this turd as a "fucking moron"......
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Last edited Thu Oct 5, 2017, 12:34 PM - Edit history (1)
human being and him being the potus for this country has FOREVER stained this country as has the reasons for his racism. This potus in our top leadership position has continually exhibited racism, sexism with racially inflammatory, violence causing words. And, to not be forgotten ever, the revelations of his personal thought on women.
Throwing paper towels, flashlights, joking, preselected RW people in his greeting crowd....everything is done to make this POS not smell so bad...it's not working, the more he does the worse he seems to be as a compassionate, caring, human being who happens to be the political leader of our struggling democracy and which still is a major power, geopolitically.
GusBob
(7,286 posts)Is he gonna claim fake news