POTUS in Puerto Rico: Tensions ease with San Juan Mayor Cruz

Trump in Puerto Rico — Image credit: The White House / Facebook

Air Force One carrying President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and a host of aides landed on the devastated island of Puerto Rico this morning, nearly two weeks after Hurricane Maria blew through the U.S. territory on September 20. Trump’s visit to the island follows a tweet war lodged against San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz. Both Cruz and Trump claimed that the other wasn’t up to the leadership demands or skills needed to bring Puerto Rico back from its current brink of disaster.

The president’s first stop was a meeting with military and local leaders where Trump applauded the efforts of his staff and federal workers to bring stability back to the island, although “People who live on the island are still widely without electricity, running water, telecommunications, and access to basic aid,” according to Buzzfeed. The President also went on to compare Hurricanes Maria and Katrina and intimated that Puerto Rico got off lucky because Maria wasn’t a real catastrophe like Katrina. Per Buzzfeed:

“What is your death count?” Trump asked the Puerto Rican governor, Ricardo Rossello.

“Sixteen, certified” he replied.

“Sixteen people certified. Sixteen people versus in the thousands,” he said, comparing it to Katrina.

“You can be very proud of all of your people and all of our people working together. Sixteen versus literally thousands of people. You can be very proud. Everyone around this table and everybody watching can really be very proud of what’s been taking place in Puerto Rico.”

After flying over the island, the president did admit that Puerto Rico had been virtually flattened by the destructive Hurricane Maria. Prior to his arrival today though and after being accused of lacking the leadership skills needed to get help to the storm ravaged island, Trump had denounced Cruz and others as “politically motivated ingrates” who needed to “do more on their own to help the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico,” according to MSN. As Cruz pleaded for help and criticized the president’s ability to move quicker to bring aid to Puerto Rico, Trump remarked “They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.”

The war of words and tweets between Trump and Cruz seems to have subsided though, with Cruz attending the president’s briefing today where he was planning on discussing relief efforts. The president and Cruz shook hands at that briefing, with that brief encounter between the two available for viewing on a White House Facebook page video.

There are 3.4 million residents of Puerto Rico who have been affected by the hurricane. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reported that as of today:

more than 10,000 federal workers have descended upon the island to bring aid;
businesses on the island are beginning to re-open;
40% of Puerto Rico’s residents have access to drinking water
60% of retail gas stations back in operation.

“While early response efforts were hampered by logistical challenges, officials say that conditions, especially in the capital, have improved,” according to MSN. Following his trip to Puerto Rico, President Trump is scheduled to be in Las Vegas on October 4 to meet with families of shooting victims from Sunday’s massacre. The latest numbers shared by ABC News regarding the Las Vegas shootings are 59 dead and 527 injured from the crazed shooter who fired an automatic weapon from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino into a crowd of country western concertgoers.