President Donald Trump inquired about the probability of “selling” Puerto Rico just after the island was pummeled by Hurricane Maria, his 1-time head of homeland security informed The New York Periods.
Elaine Duke, former acting secretary of homeland stability, mentioned that Trump approached the scenario of a devastated Puerto Rico as a businessman would and questioned about the alternative of “divesting” or “selling” the U.S. territory as it struggled in the aftermath of the 2017 hurricane. She was taken aback by that reaction, she told the Moments.
“The president’s preliminary suggestions have been far more of as a businessman,” Duke recalled. “Can we outsource the energy? Can we promote the island … or divest of that asset?”
Trump railed against Puerto Rican officials at the time around the quantity of dollars essential to rebuild soon after Maria struck — and complained that the island had thrown the U.S. price range “out of whack.” His administration was sharply criticized for its sluggish and inadequate reaction after the catastrophe, which in the long run killed some 3,000 people. Trump termed San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz “nasty” after she criticized his administration’s reaction.
As yet another hurricane, Dorian, bore down on the island “as usual” two several years later, Trump complained in a tweet, the president railed at Puerto Ricans politicians for remaining ungrateful.
Duke said the Puerto Rico divestment difficulty was under no circumstances severely reviewed just after Trump raised the idea.
In a associated thing to consider in 2019, Trump exposed that he mulled a “large” American “real estate deal” to purchase the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, house to 56,000 men and women. Denmark might be up for it, he argued, because it is “losing almost $700 million a calendar year carrying” Greenland.
The Danes and Greenland citizens were being appalled. Officials blasted the concept as “absurd” and the “final proof” that Trump had “long gone mad.”
Duke, a existence-prolonged Republican, also criticized Trump’s embrace of “hate-crammed, offended and divisive” language. She reported Trump’s paranoia about an imagined “deep state” blocked him from seeking precious counsel from a assortment of gurus in the government.
Examine the whole Situations post in this article.
Calling all HuffPost superfans!
Signal up for membership to turn out to be a founding member and assistance shape HuffPost’s next chapter
More Stories
How List Acquisition Helps Your Political Campaign Become Successful
Four escaped cows were caught
A simple administrative decision? | Press