Former staffer reveals Trump always hated Puerto Rico
By Julia Conley, staff writer
for Common
Dreams
To watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YwQX5Tsvls
A former Homeland
Security official said this week that in addition to
suggesting the U.S. sell Puerto Rico as the island territory was struggling to
recover after Hurricane Maria, President Donald Trump proposed
"trading" the territory for another island he had previously
expressed interest in—Greenland.
Miles Taylor,
who served as chief of staff to former
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen from 2017 to 2019, told MSNBC that
the president derided Puerto Rico as "dirty" and the people living
there as "poor" a year after the hurricane devastated the
island.
"The president's
talked before about wanting to purchase Greenland, but one time before we went
down, he told us not only did he want to purchase Greenland, he actually said
he wanted to see if we could sell Puerto Rico. Could we swap Puerto Rico for
Greenland," Taylor, who has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden
in the 2020 election, told MSNBC Wednesday. "Because in
his words Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor."
The president
reportedly made the comment in August 2018, Taylor said, a year after Maria and
its aftermath left nearly 3,000 people dead and forced 130,000 Puerto Ricans—about 4% of the
island's population—to leave their home.
According to Taylor, Trump displayed "deep animus toward the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes" while responding to the crisis, during which he visited the island and casually tossed rolls of paper towels to struggling and traumatized local residents—a moment which one victim viewed as "disrespectful" and a former FEMA official called "belittling."
The president was
widely condemned for his response to the hurricane. The administration
reportedly placed restrictions on post-disaster aid
last year, complained that the island territory got too much federal aid, denied the disaster's death toll,
and called his response to the humanitarian
crisis there an "unsung success."
Last year, the Wall
Street Journal first reported that Trump had proposed
purchasing Greenland from Denmark, an idea that Soren Espersen, foreign
affairs spokesperson for the Danish People's Party, called "final
proof that he has gone mad."
"Everything crazy
in [the] Trump administration appears to be true," tweeted epidemiologist
Eric Feigl-Ding on Wednesday.
Last month, former
Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke first revealed in a New York Times interview
that the president had suggested selling or "divesting" Puerto Rico.
"You may try to
sell the office you hold, your personal integrity and your soul, Mr.
President—but I assure you Puerto Rico is not for sale!" tweeted Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) in
response.
