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Senate Democrats blocked a disaster aid bill Monday because it doesn't include enough aid for hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico, and Donald Trump is furious. The next steps aren’t clear, but there’s political will in Congress to get something passed, because several Republican senators are seeking aid for their own states. Trump, though, is mostly mad that anyone is caring about Puerto Rico.
Trump went on a five-tweet tirade in which he showed once and for all that his claim about $91 billion in aid for Puerto Rico is false. The White House had claimed that, when Trump said $91 billion, he was including both aid that’s already out there and years, maybe even decades, of future aid. Since reports of Trump’s $91 billion claim were paraphrased by people who heard him say it in a meeting closed to press, the Washington Post’s fact-checker concluded it was impossible to tell if Trump was speaking accurately. Well, now we know. In response to the Senate bill failing, Trump tweeted that “Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before.” Got. Not “is getting.” Not “will get.” But got. Which is false.
Trump also provided further fuel for speculation that he doesn’t understand that Puerto Rico is part of the United States, tweeting that Puerto Rico’s politicians, a key focus of his rant, “only take from USA” and “Cannot continue to hurt our Farmers and States with these massive payments, and so little appreciation.” In translation, Puerto Rico doesn’t count as part of the whole of the United States, and money to it is theft from the real America.
Because this is Donald Trump talking, the appreciation he’s demanding is not just for the $91 billion in aid the island hasn’t gotten—in fact, the Washington Post fact-checker writes, “depending on how you do the math,” only about $11.2 billion has actually been spent—but appreciation because “The best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico is President Donald J. Trump.” It seems like most Puerto Ricans would disagree. And the aid the island needs is currently being fought out in Congress, with Democrats trying to use every bit of leverage they have to pass even a meaningful part of what Puerto Rico needs, over the objections of Republicans trying to keep their narcissistic leader happy.