President Donald Trump sought Friday to repair political damage over his handling of the crisis in Puerto Rico, tweeting that he “will always be with them.”
“The wonderful people of Puerto Rico, with their unmatched spirit, know how bad things were before the H’s. I will always be with them!”, U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter. His pledge that he will always be with the people of Puerto Rico comes only one day after his statement that federal help for the island might have limits. Puerto Rico was devastated by the hurricanes and is still recovering.
Previously Trump stated that the Congress should decide how much to spend on Puerto Rico. He added that FEMA, the Military and the First Responders, can’t be in Puerto Rico forever, while assessing their work as amazing under the most difficult circumstances. According to an unnamed FEMA official, the agency has no hard deadline on when it plans to pull resources from the island, CNN reports.
Pair of powerful hurricanes hit the island and made a huge damage. Much of the island is still without power, access to clean drinking water and telephone service after the landfall of Hurricane Maria last month. Large number of the hospitals now operate only with the help of generators.
Even though some have said that the federal aid effort is insufficient and it is not effective, Trump claimed credit for the successful federal aid effort, Politico reports.
Trump also had some conflicts with the mayor of San Juan, who asked for additional support for the island in the days after Maria’s landfall. The president had suggested and that Puerto Rico’s financial situation played a role and could complicate the recovery effort. Puerto Rico had to declare a type of bankruptcy last spring.
In the meantime, The House of Representatives approved a 36.5 billion dollar disaster aid package to help victims struggling to recover from a string of devastating hurricanes and wildfires. The measure is headed to the Senate.
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