Trump attacks Puerto Rico: "They want everything to be done for them"

Tweeting from his country club resort early Saturday morning, Trump portrayed the people of Puerto Rico, particularly Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, as ungrateful players in the disaster.

The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

…Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

…want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

Residents in Puerto Rico have no power and many may not have power until 2018. There’s a dangerous shortage of water, food, and fuel, and Trump is blaming these American citizens for not doing their part in fix the situation.

His heartless behavior borders on the inhumane, and it was immediately greeted with guttural denunciations from across the political spectrum.

From an editor at the conservative National Review:

https://twitter.com/charlescwcooke/status/914096235224686592

To Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has been deeply active in the Puerto Rico relief effort:

You're going straight to hell, @realDonaldTrump.
No long lines for you.
Someone will say, "Right this way, sir."
They'll clear a path. https://t.co/xXfJH0KJmw

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) September 30, 2017

Obviously, Trump is lashing out in response to the mounting criticism that his administration hasn’t done enough to help Puerto Rico, more than one week after the story demolished the island, and that he has taken a passive, indifferent approach compared to the active one he took when hurricanes barreled into Texas and Florida this summer.

Specifically, Trump’s responding to the righteous indignation of San Juan’s mayor who on Friday pleaded for American assistance.

“I will do what I never thought I was going to do,” Cruz declared. “I am begging, begging anyone that can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency.”

As with Charlottesville, Virginia, and the white nationalist violence that erupted there, Trump has faced a national crisis in Puerto Rico. And not only has he failed to act responsibly — he’s failed to act with any decency at all.