Tuesday Hogan Gidley, White House deputy press secretary, was on MSNBC to defend Trump for his twitter rage against Puerto Rican leaders when he referred to Puerto Rico as "that country"-- twice. Reporting for Politico yesterday, Rebecca Morin, wrote that the Trumpist regime "has been criticized for holding a double standard when it comes to distributing hurricane relief aid and favoring states such as Florida and Texas over Puerto Rico. All areas were hit by destructive hurricanes around the same time."
Trump was also criticized for his visit to the island, after he appeared to downplay the destruction and death caused by two hurricanes that struck within several weeks of each other. Images of the president playfully throwing paper towels became the main image from the trip.Gidley on Tuesday sidestepped when asked whether Trump believed Puerto Ricans were equal to U.S. citizens living on the mainland, saying those accusations were "absolutely ridiculous."MSNBC host Hallie Jackson pressed Gidley on Trump's statement that Puerto Ricans are "taking from the USA.""Puerto Rico is part of the United States. People who live in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens," Jackson said. "You're rolling your eyes and I don't know why you're rolling your eyes. There's a lot of confusion over why the president would say this and what he understands and how he views the people of Puerto Rico.""That's ridiculous. He has actually already traveled to Puerto Rico after this horrific hurricane. He was there," Gidley replied."He gave them a lot of money. They have mismanaged and misused that money. It hurts their people, and that's what he is upset about," he added.
It's odd that no one has mentioned that Trump's notorious racism has always applied equally to Puerto Ricans and African-Americans. From an early age, when he was still basically an errand boy for his Nazi/KKK father, Trump was illegally preventing Puerto Rican families from renting apartments in Trump properties for which the federal government sued the firm.Trump has had a bad attitude towards Puerto Rican people and towards the island itself. Last January, Vanity Fair Bess Levin reported that was doing all he could to screw Puerto Rico. She wrote that once "got it into his head that Puerto Rico was using emergency money to pay off its debt, he told then-Chief of Staff John Kelly and then-Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney that he 'did not want a single dollar going to Puerto Rico,' and wanted to divert the island’s relief funds to Texas and Florida. 'POTUS was not consolable about this,' a person familiar with the matter told the paper. This led to what was likely a deeply surreal moment for Patenaude, who reportedly had to explain to White House budget officials during a December meeting that the money for Puerto Rico had already been appropriated by Congress, and had to be used as intended. 'Pam Patenaude showed the most commitment to Puerto Rico of any of the public officials inside the Trump administration,' Carlos Mercader, the executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration in Washington, told the Post... [The repulsive racist in the White House] "became obsessed with stripping the island of aid-- despite its infrastructure remaining precarious post-Hurricane Maria-- driving one of the few competent people in the administration to give up and quit:
A top Department of Housing and Urban Development official is leaving the agency Thursday following disagreements with other members of the Trump administration over housing policy and the White House’s attempt to block disaster-recovery money for Puerto Rico, according to five people with direct knowledge of the situation. Deputy Secretary Pam Patenaude, second-in-command at the agency helmed by Ben Carson and widely regarded as HUD’s most capable political leader, is said to have grown frustrated by what a former HUD employee described as a “Sisyphean undertaking.”
No one knows how Trump came up with the $91 billion figure-- $80 billion more than what Puerto Rico has gotten in hurricane aid. Trump's fury was unleashed when Democrats blocked the totally inadequate Republican disaster relief bill on Monday. The $13.45 billion bill would have provided assistance to victims of hurricanes in Florida, George and North Carolina, floods in the South and Midwest, and wildfires in California but allocated just $600 million allocated for Puerto Rico, far too little.After the vote, the psychopath ranted that "The Democrats today killed a Bill that would have provided great relief to Farmers and yet more money to Puerto Rico despite the fact that Puerto Rico has already been scheduled to receive more hurricane relief funding than any 'place' in history and the next morning, decided to play the victim, insisting that "the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico is President Donald J. Trump. So many wonderful people, but with such bad Island leadership and with so much money wasted. Cannot continue to hurt our Farmers and States with these massive payments, and so little appreciation!" You've probably noticed this before but it can't be said too much: the man is insane (and should be removed).
