In “Leading Homeland Security Under a President Who Embraces ‘Hate-Filled’ Talk”, the New York Times’s Michael D. Shear interviewed Elaine C. Duke, who was acting secretary of homeland security in summer 2017. Duke said that as Hurricane Maria approached Puerto Rico, President Trump’s budget director Mick Mulvaney resisted making an emergency declaration, saying “Quit being so emotional, Elaine, it’s not about the people, it’s about the money.” (Mulvaney denies saying this.)
After the hurricane struck, in one meeting Trump raised the possibility of divesting or selling Puerto Rico instead of helping it to recover. Shear writes:
“The president’s initial ideas were more of as a businessman, you know,” she recalled. “Can we outsource the electricity? Can we can we sell the island? You know, or divest of that asset?”
Duke is the administrator who signed (under pressure) the memo to terminate DACA, which was the basis for the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Trump administration terminated DACA arbitrarily. She still thinks DACA is illegal but hopes Republicans and Democrats in Congress will find a way to let DACA recipients live and work permanently in the US. She has not yet decided whether to vote for Trump this fall.