GUAYAMA, PUERTO RICO — Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló visited President Trump at the White House on Thursday to discuss the U.S. island territory’s hurricane catastrophe. The President gave himself a perfect score on Puerto Rico relief. Puerto Ricans on the island … beg to differ.
A full month after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, 80 percent of its 3.4 million people still have no power. And relief supplies are only now starting to move more regularly into the island’s demolished interior. Still, President Trump gave his performance there a perfect 10.
But on the streets of Puerto Rico itself, it was hard to find anyone who agreed with him.
“No - para mí, no,” said San Juan maintenance worker Ana Rivera when told about Trump's assertion.
“What performance?" Rivera asked. "How can you grade work you haven’t really done? We haven't really seen anything from him yet except insults at Puerto Rico.”
In Guayama, in Puerto Rico’s hard-hit southeast, Albert Rodríguez waited in a long line for hard-to-find cash. He also gave Trump a lower mark.
“He’s doing a horrible job," said Rodríguez . "It’s real slow, very slow. I just think he doesn’t think that we’re important at all. Puerto Ricans are American citizens and they should start treating us as such.”
At the White House, Rosselló told reporters the President (who seemed to press the Puerto Rico governor to agree with his assessment) “responded immediately” to the island’s crisis.
