A New Insult Reminds Puerto Ricans of How Trump Treated Them
As president, Donald Trump fought bitterly with Puerto Rican officials, ridiculed them and resisted sending aid to the territory after devastating hurricanes.Carmen Yulín Cruz’s cellphone started buzzing on Sunday while she was at the airport in Connecticut, waiting for a flight to Puerto Rico. A standup comic at former President Donald J. Trump’s rally in New York had called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”As video clips of the comic, Tony Hinchcliffe, began flashing on airport televisions, fellow Puerto Ricans preparing to board their flight began erupting, Ms. Cruz said.“People were asking me, ‘Mira, Yulín, what is this guy saying?’ — only in more colorful language,” Ms. Cruz, the former mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital, said on Monday. “And I said: ‘Well, this isn’t the first time. Let’s not be surprised.’”As president, Mr. Trump fought bitterly with Ms. Cruz and other Puerto Rican leaders, and resisted sending billions of dollars in aid after the territory was ravaged by back-to-back hurricanes in 2017. He made angry comments on social media and tossed paper towels at Puerto Ricans during a visit that few, if any, have forgotten. He even wondered privately if the United States could sell the island.In 2019, Mr. Trump decried local leaders as “grossly incompetent.” A year later, while running for re-election, he tried to portray himself as the “best thing that ever happened” to the island. The Republican Party platform no longer mentions statehood for Puerto Rico, a position the party had held before Mr. Trump’s relationship with the island soured.While his campaign distanced itself from Mr. Hinchcliffe’s joke, saying it did not reflect Mr. Trump’s views, Mr. Trump himself has not apologized.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
