Trump’s been at it—again—using Puerto Rico as his punching bag.
I realize that a lot of people have put forth the idea that the Liar in Chief in the White House is also an idiot who doesn’t realize that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory (colony) and that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. From my perspective, that is an easy out. It lets him off the hook and gives him a “dumb pass.”
I think Trump is very aware of what he is doing. Greg Sargent got it right in his Washington Post opinion piece:
“Trump’s new Puerto Rico hate-tweets rest on a very ugly premise”
President Trump wants Midwestern farmers to believe that Puerto Rico, with the complicity of Democrats, is trying to take their disaster relief money from them — and that the island is undeserving of any further financial help. As usual, these arguments are based on lies. But as Trump’s lies go, these are particularly instructive — and ugly.
Yet these new lies also raise a question: Why does Trump assume that Midwestern farmers will believe them? …
In an unusually disgusting and hateful series of tweets, he claimed that Puerto Rico has already gotten $91 billion in aid, which he said has been “wasted” by “grossly incompetent” leaders there. Crucially, Trump also argued that Puerto Rico politicians “only take from USA” and that Democrats now “want to give them more, taking dollars away from our Farmers.”
Trump’s claim that Puerto Rico has already gotten $91 billion in aid is a lie.
Here’s my only mild disagreement with Sargent (my bold):
We don’t know for sure if Trump believes his latest attacks on Puerto Rico will please his base. But, given that he’s telling rural voters in a region he needs in 2020 that Puerto Rican disaster sufferers do not deserve any more help and that such help would take from them, it seems like a reasonable assumption.
It is unlikely that large numbers of those voters will believe this story. But what does the fact that Trump is telling it say about his view of those voters, and of what they want to hear?
Methinks his racist, xenophobic base believes him easily.
Why?
Because he’s using the Ronnie Raygun racist playbook. Puerto Ricans become Trumps’ “welfare queens”—shiftless, lazy, corrupt parasites on the American body politic. He paints them as takers—robbing from the nice hard-working Midwest farmers (subtext: white) who pay taxes and deserve assistance, and who should be angered about throwing more money into a Spanish-speaking swamp of corruption, waste, and mismanagement.
Greg Sargent wasn’t the only journalist to examine Trump’s ravings. Matt Kwong wrote for CBC News:
“For Trump White House, belittling Puerto Rico might be more than a 'slip of the tongue': Why remarks that seem to imply Puerto Ricans are not 'real Americans' could be a deliberate strategy”
If Trump's tweets on Tuesday were deliberate messaging about how he views the status of Puerto Ricans, the president's deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley carried it through on cable news. Twice, Gidley referred to Puerto Rico as "that country," rather than as a domestic commonwealth belonging to the nation he calls home.
"A slip of the tongue," the White House aide said later.
Or maybe not, contends Amilcar Barreto, an expert on Puerto Rican politics with Northeastern University. Barreto, who was born in San Juan and specializes on the intersection of Puerto Rican politics and American national identity, believes Trump's "othering" of Puerto Ricans is a deliberate move for political gain. As Republicans move towards what he calls "an ethnic notion of national identity," he argued, Trump is appealing to a constituency that "does not view Puerto Ricans or Latinos or people of colour in general as real Americans."
In a tweet this week, Trump called Puerto Rico's local politicians "grossly incompetent" and reasoned they were fiscally irresponsible and were mismanaging disaster funds. Fair as the criticism might have been, critics pointed out that didn't preclude the government from allocating funds to help rebuild New Orleans, despite corruption allegations after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Trump vowed in 2016, after winning the presidency, that he would be "president for all Americans." But Barreto hears "hierarchical citizenship" in the president's words. Being "worthy" of such funding, he said, seems to come down to a sense of belonging in the U.S. Asked about the possibility Trump simply didn't realize Puerto Rico is part of the U.S., Baretto scoffed.
"Please. The man lived in New York City most of his adult life. He's been surrounded by Puerto Ricans for years."
First, let’s look at his tweets.
The “heart” numbers are those people who “liked” what he had to say. The “people are talking about this” numbers are the responses.
Note: Amazing how easily this lie was slipped in—since the reality is that Hurricane Katrina in 2005 tops the modern-day charts, in terms of both damage and federal dollars spent.
I have problems with this headline—“Trump Misleads on Aid to Puerto Rico,” from FactCheck.org— since I prefer “lied”; however, they make it clear that he lies about the highest amount of federal dollars spent after hurricanes.
For those of you who are not on Twitter, or who are, but don’t dive into the sewer of his responses— I’ve donned a Hazmat suit to do it for you. I don’t watch Fox News, but I do try to see what they are saying via Twitter.
I spend time responding to the tweets that repeat the right-wing mantra that Puerto Ricans don’t pay federal taxes by linking to facts; however, I wind up blocking most of the asshats. Lest you assume that most of the Trump sycophants and cheering squads are all Russian bots and trolls—they aren’t.
Nor are they all white.
Here’s an example:
Who the hell is “TheRightMelissa”?
Censored by Twitter. Christian, Conservative, Wife, mum. Followed by Don Jr, Hannity, D'Souza, Rosanne... I’m here to Expose what the Media doesn’t want seen
She has 25.8K followers on Instagram, and 171K followers on Twitter. She amplifies far-right bigotry daily. There are plenty more where she comes from.
A word of warning: I’ve seen too many comments here on Daily Kos, and on other social media platforms, making the assumption that Puerto Ricans are automatically Democrats, and anti-Trump. Those remarks are often linked to assertions that “Puerto Rico should be a state—and as a result we would have two more Democratic senators.” It is also simplistic to assume that all Puerto Ricans see themselves as “oppressed people of color.”
It ain’t necessarily so.
Kwong points out:
Even after complaints of a slow response to the relief effort after Maria in 2017, with the mayor of San Juan calling the president "abominable" for lobbing paper towels into a crowd like he was shooting free throws in a basketball game, 2018 voting data nevertheless showed Puerto Rican voters in Florida helping to elect Republican Rick Scott to the Senate. (Scott was among the first prominent Republicans to endorse Trump's candidacy in 2016.)
"Puerto Ricans in Florida are not as pissed off at Trump as people think," said Iara Rodriguez, a Puerto Rico delegate at the 2012 Democratic convention who now lives in Florida.
"They registered and already voted for one Republican. And that's all it takes."
Here’s an example, from before the election last year:
“Rick Scott campaigns with Jenniffer González-Colón, Puerto Rican leaders in Miami”
González-Colón, a member of the Republican Party, spoke on social media in Spanish about her support, saying that Florida’s governor showed his human quality in reaching out to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island nation and has opened the doors for those leaving Puerto Rico who chose Florida as their new home.
The other leaders backing Scott included: former Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño; Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives Johnny Mendez; former Speaker of the Puerto Rico House Jose Aponte; Puerto Rico Reps. Eddie Charbonier, Michael Abid Quiñones, José Quiquito Meléndez, Lourdes Ramos, Manuel Claudio, Jackie Rodriguez and Milagros Charbonier; and Puerto Rico Committeewoman Zoraida Fonalledas.
González-Colón, the first woman ever elected as Puerto Rico’s lone, non-voting representative in the House, formally endorsed Scott back in May.
“They say that hard times will always reveal true friends, and I cannot think of a better friend to the American citizens of Puerto Rico than Governor Scott,” she said then.
The politics of Puerto Rico, its historical and present-day relationship to the mainland U.S., and Puerto Ricans as a demographic category are far more complicated and nuanced than some of the more facile opinions I see expressed would allow.
I have written quite a bit on PR over the last few years. For those of you who read Abbreviated Pundit Roundup (APR), a daily feature here at Daily Kos, I post a daily “Puerto Rico Twitter Roundup” in the comments section. As we draw closer to the next tragedy in the making—the looming cutoff of Medicaid funds to the island, in September—I will be doing more.
You can still support recovery efforts on the island. Please continue to contact your elected officials, and push them to stand up for PR.
¡Pa’lante Siempre Pa’lante!