San Juan Mayor Calls Trump "Miscommunication-in-Chief"

Photo: Carolyn Cole/LA Times/Getty

Shade alert. San Juan’s mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz is not backing down from Donald Trump. Following the president’s visit to Puerto Rico to show support in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, she took a shot at the president on MSNBC. “He was insulting to the people of Puerto Rico… He’s sort of like miscommunication in chief,” she told the network. “You don’t go to another place when people are in peril and are suffering and you just kind of hover around in a helicopter without having some kind words to say.”

She also called his visit to the U.S. territory a publicity stunt. “This was a PR 17-minute meeting. There was no exchange with anybody, none of the mayors and in fact, this terrible and abominable view of him throwing paper towels and throwing provisions at people. It does not embody the spirit of the American nation.”

Last week, in response to Acting Secretary of Homeland Elaine Duke calling the tragedy in Puerto Rico “a good news story,” Cruz unleashed some scathing words: “When you’re drinking from a creek, it’s not a good news story. When you don’t have food for a baby, it’s not a good news story. When you have to pull people from their buildings…I’m sorry but that really upsets me….This is not a good news story. This is a ‘people are dying’ story.”

“I cannot fathom the thought,” she added, “that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out the logistics for a small island of 100 miles by 35 miles long.” She then directed a pointed comment at Trump: “So I am asking the President of the United States to make sure somebody is in charge that is up to the task of saving lives.”

After revealing the gross shortage of supplies Puerto Rico has received, she said she was done playing nice: “So I am done being polite, I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell because my people’s lives are at stake.”

Tension between Trump and the Puerto Rican mayor began after he criticized her and other Puerto Rican officials‘ leadership and suggested that Cruz was being “nasty” to him because Democrats advised her to. In a recent interview with Univision’s Jorge Ramos for Al Punto, Cruz wore a “Nasty” T-shirt, and said: “What really is nasty is showing your back to the Puerto Rican people.”