Puerto Rico: San Juan Mayor puts ‘Fake News Cartoon’ Trump on blast for the deaths of 3,000 Puerto Ricans

San Juan Puerto Rico Mayor Yulin Cruz
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. Screen capture by MSNBC via YouTube video

A war of words or more specifically tweets has erupted between President Donald Trump and San Juan, Puerto Rico Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz after Trump took to Twitter to complain incorrectly that “Puerto Rico got $91 billion for the hurricane” and to also imply (again incorrectly) that the territory isn’t part of the United States.

But USA Today notes that a November 2018 report by FEMA showed that the territory received just over $3 billion. And Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rossello offered a further smackdown.

“Mr. President: STOP spreading misinformation!” he tweeted. “#Puerto Rico has not received $91b (only 300M in permanent work). It’s not ‘us’ vs ‘them.’ It’s about Americans in need.”

But Trump held himself a pity party on Twitter.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, Cruz said she’s continually shocked by Trump’s attacks, Mediaite reports.

“Let’s fact check the president because he has become a fake news cartoon,” she told Wallace. “First of all, Mr. President, 3,000 Puerto Ricans died on your watch. They died because your government was inefficient, ineffective, and unable to do its job.”

And she also had this to say:

“Secondly, again, you should fire whomever told you $91 million were given to Puerto Rico.”

Hurricanes Maria and Irma ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017, with Hurricane Maria alone devastating the U.S. territory’s economy to the tune of $43 billion according to a December report by NBC News.

Cruz noted Trump controls the purse strings, and he’s holding this over people’s heads.

“We have $600 million that the president is holding hostage. Because his vanity is much higher than his humanity is,” she told Wallace. “$600 million to feed 1.3 million Puerto Rican people. What kind of man is he that he looks the other way when people need to be fed? He continues to embarrass himself. He continues to embarrass the office of the presidency.”

Wallace asked Cruz how the government could help, and the mayor responded by asking Trump not to “weaponize” aid to the island.

“Most of all, we need the president to develop a heart,” she said. “This man is heartless. This man is vengeful. This man racially discriminates against people that are not like him, and he is willing to let people starve, to let people die.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also took a dig at Trump for encouraging senators not to allocate more aid to Puerto Rico. It’s been reported that Trump told colleagues that “they don’t know how to spend the money and they’re not spending it wisely.”

“They said that Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned,” Schumer said. “President Trump tweets while Puerto Rico suffers.”

And Cruz, who’s now running for Governor of Puerto Rico offered one more retort that summed Trump up quite well.

“Pres Trump continues to embarrass himself & the office he holds,” she tweeted. “He is unhinged & thus lies about the $ received by PR. He knows his response was inefficient at best. He can huff and puff all he wants but he cannot escape the death of 3,000 on his watch. Shame on you!”

And Cruz is not wrong. But Trump is also responsible for thousands of immigrant children being held in detention camps, separated from their parents. Some of these innocent children have died as a result, because compassion is not in this man’s vocabulary.

Featured image by MSNBC via YouTube video