October 9, 2017

Trump Demands More “Appreciation” for Relief Effort in Puerto Rico

He has a video to prove the “fake news media” wrong.

President Donald Trump continued to defend the federal government’s relief efforts in Puerto Rico on Sunday, this time sharing sharing a nearly nine-minute video to showcase all the work he’s done on the island in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The president also complained that the recovery was being met with “so little appreciation.”

The video, which opens with a title card claiming to reveal what the “fake news media” refuses to broadcast, strings together various bits of footage showing administration officials delivering aid throughout the island. It ends with a collection of clips featuring Trump shaking residents’ hands during his visit to the island last Tuesday.

The footage does not include clips of Trump telling Puerto Ricans that they should be “proud” because the confirmed death toll at the time was far lower than in a “real catastrophe” like Hurricane Katrina. It also omitted images of Trump throwing paper towels at people at a relief center. “I was having fun, they were having fun,” Trump said on Saturday while defending his decision to throw the paper towels.

More than two weeks after Hurricane Maria first made landfall, most of the island remains without power. Last week, statistics on the lack of electricity and drinking water temporarily disappeared from FEMA’s website, but the website left up the numbers backing up Trump’s rosier descriptions of the recovery effort.  San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, an outspoken critic of Trump’s response, tweeted on Sunday that the federal government is ignoring her requests for help.

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