Former White House staffer and Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman has confirmed what most of us have long suspected about this administration’s true attitude towards the people of Puerto Rico:
Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman says in her new book that White House chief of staff John Kelly shut down her attempts to get aid for Puerto Rico after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria — and he accused the island government of trying to exploit the tragedy to get money from Washington.
She also writes that Kelly and President Donald Trump "referred to Puerto Ricans with derogatory terms many times.”
It shouldn’t really be a surprise that an administration that owes its election to the demonization of Latinos and Hispanics would view them through the lens of stereotypes. One can almost imagine them chuckling and making jokes about the distressed, deperate calls for aid as Hurricane Maria struck the small island. But it’s still stunning to witness the sheer lack of compassion and empathy towards these American citizens:
“… His total lack of empathy is bad enough, but I believe many of the problems and delays with getting aid to Puerto Rico were partly political," Manigault Newman wrote.
This time around, it was apparently John Kelly who jumped to follow his boss’s lead. Judging from the meager response, he knew full well it was his job to do as little as possible to help “those people." Following the script that all racists follow, Trump’s chief of staff opted to blame them for their misfortune:
Kelly suggested that Puerto Rico's government, near bankruptcy, "was trying to exploit the hurricane to focus on the United States to foot the bill to rebuild their electrical grid," she continued.
This was evidently the standard operating procedure Kelly was told to follow. After the malevolent disregard from this President became too much for San Juan’s Mayor, Carmen Yulín Cruz, prompting her to protest the treatment of her people, Omarosa thinks that most likely caused Trump to double down:
Manigault Newman wrote in her book: "I would not put it past Trump to punish the people of Puerto Rico to teach that woman of color a lesson."
Because what good is racism without a little misogyny tossed in for kicks?
The thing is, those of us who were paying attention didn’t need Omarosa Manigault Newman to tell us this. All she’s doing is confirming what was obvious from the start, in the stark disparity between how hurricane victims from Texas and Florida were treated, compared to the people of Puerto Rico.
The island still does not know exactly how many people died, but the early toll of 16 deaths was dismissed long ago. Last week, Puerto Rico's government said the death toll could be more than 1,400, but a Harvard study has said the toll is closer to 4,645.
The people of Puerto Rico were never human beings to Trump—and they still aren’t today, two months into the 2018 hurricane season.