President Trump said Tuesday Puerto Rico’s “incompetent” politicians spent money “foolishly or corruptly” after a disaster relief bill failed in the Senate.
“Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before, & all their local politicians do is complain & ask for more money. The pols are grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, & only take from USA,” Mr. Trump tweeted.
“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,” he added.
Mr. Trump also claimed on Monday Puerto Rico had gotten “more hurricane relief funding than any ’place’ in history.”
“FEMA & the Military worked emergency miracles, but politicians like the crazed and incompetent Mayor of San Juan [Carmen Yulín Cruz] have done such a poor job of bringing the Island back to health. 91 Billion Dollars to Puerto Rico, and now the Dems want to give them more, taking dollars away from our Farmers and so many others. Disgraceful,” he tweeted.
The GOP sponsored bill to assist flooding in the Midwest failed 44-49 in the Senate after Democrats said Puerto Rico would not get the money needed to continue storm recovery efforts.
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said Thursday Mr. Trump’s price tag of 91 billion dollars is “misleading information from his own staff.”
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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