Two weeks after Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico, Donald Trump finally took time away from his golf game and reprimanding NFL players to visit San Juan. Needless to say, it didn’t go well.
Current Events
With no internal compass to carefully pick his battles and an irresistible desire to always make everything about him, Trump’s Caribbean pit-stop to the US territory was more show than substance and more about revenge than progress.
“The Donald” had already picked a week-long fight with the Mayor of San Juan, calling her criticism of his failure to send help sooner “politically motivated.” So, it’s no surprise that Trump spent only enough time on the island to visit an affluent section of San Juan (while skipping the poorer and more deeply affected portions of Puerto Rico) just to prove a point.
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During a press conference and photo-op with Governor Ricardo Rosselló of Puerto Rico and other officials, Trump did the obligatory patting of himself on the back for the “great job” he has done for the people of the island. However, what happened next was completely unexpected.
Trump rudely told the Puerto Rican residents they should be “very proud” that hundreds of people haven’t died after Hurricane Maria like they did in “a real catastrophe like Katrina.” Note the term “a REAL catastrophe, as if the PR devastation was irrelevant.
“Every death is a horror,” Trump said, “but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina and you look at the tremendous — hundreds and hundreds of people that died — and you look at what happened here with, really, a storm that was just totally overpowering … no one has ever seen anything like this.”
Current Events
Then, in his traditional crass style, Trump took matters a step further.
“What is your death count?” he asked the governor. “17?”
“16,” Gov. Rosselló answered.
“16 people certified. 16 people versus in the thousands,” Trump said in a rude attempt to compare the disaster of Maria to Katrina.
Oh, but “The Donald” was not done.
He then went on to blame the island and its 3.5 million residents for hurting the US federal budget by daring to need assistance following a natural disaster beyond their control.
“I hate to tell you Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack,” Trump said with a smirk. “Because we’ve spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico,” he added in an attempt to take a swipe at the island’s financial woes. Interestingly, he never complained to the people of Texas or Florida when they too were struck by “budget-busting” hurricanes.
During his 4-hour stop in San Juan, Trump never surveyed any damage. He never comforted any survivors. He never delivered supplies (No, throwing toilet paper/paper towels into a crowd like dogs doesn’t count). Instead, he created a sound bite to hopefully help the damning headlines that he’s been tone-deaf to the black and brown AMERICAN citizens of Puerto Rico.
If there was any doubt that Donald Trump is a complete imbecile, his visit to San Juan was enough to remove ALL doubt!
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An accurate summary DJ.
I would only add – as was reported several times on MSNBC, the “imbecile”-and-chief then wrapped up his disastrous visit to PR by departing “well over an hour” earlier than he was scheduled to. But when you’ve managed to confirm to the entire WORLD just how TOTALLY LACKING you are in Class, intellect, empathy and just plain ole common-sense why stop there!?!
Leave early so there can be absolutely NO doubt about your true character and obvious deficiencies.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright MORON.”
— H. L. Mencken