“There’s a lot going on. I don’t know if you know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe began Donald Trump’s Sunday night rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City with a derogatory joke about the American territory of Puerto Rico. His quip about the state of the territory received tentative but steady applause. Although the Trump administration has, in recent moments, tried to distance itself from Hinchcliffe’s comments, the former president’s impact on the territory has been mired in controversy during and after his tenure. The repeated negligence of the Trump administration towards Puerto Rico has harmful ramifications that have extended far beyond the former president’s tenure.
The history of Donald Trump’s relationship with Puerto Rico is tenuous, beginning with his handling of Hurricane Maria in 2017. During his office, Trump notably withheld 20 billion dollars of aid to Puerto Rico. Then, his administration obstructed an investigation into the reasoning behind government officials withholding assistance for the territory. In a Washington Post Report, it was revealed that “Trump had told top White House officials “that he did not want a single dollar going to Puerto Rico,” and “Instead, he wanted more of the money to go to Texas and Florida.” Trump’s carelessness with regard to supplying federal aid to Puerto Rico is only one of a series of federal blunders in the territories. The former president’s sole regard for the mainland United States as opposed to insular areas is abhorrent, and cannot be allowed to continue.
In his visit to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, Trump notably exaggerated his administration’s success before throwing rolls of paper towels to onlookers in the crowd. Trump’s response drew harsh criticism from many elected officials, with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz saying, “I would hope that the president of the United States stops spouting out comments that really hurt the people of Puerto Rico because, rather than commander in chief, he sort of becomes miscommunicator in chief.” Criticisms about Trump’s lack of communication were commonplace on the territory as significant infrastructural damage, and the loss of life occurred in the period after the hurricane. The former president’s relationship with the San Juan mayor was a topic of much contention during his presidency, as he later reasoned that Puerto Rico deserved to talk about statehood once they had good leadership, which he said Yulin Cruz was not.
As recently as 2018, Trump allegedly talked to aides about a trade of Puerto Rico for Greenland. According to former Homeland Security aid Mike Taylor, Trump was desperate to get rid of the territory in the wake of disastrous hurricanes that wreaked havoc on the island. According to Taylor, Trump said, “Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor.” Trump’s continued derogatory comments towards Puerto Rican citizens and his repeated ignorance of the territory itself have normalized existing stereotypes of Puerto Rican people to his audience, solidifying his poor history of negligence towards the island.
The continually false rhetoric perpetuated by the Trump administration has fostered negative conversation that has only hurt public perception of Puerto Rico. Tony Hinchcliffe’s seemingly lighthearted introduction of Trump on Sunday night has revealed something significantly deeper: the negative stigma around Puerto Rico has only grown recently, and the Trump administration has played an essential role in this process. The president of the United States must stand for all people, not just those who vote in their favor, and the people of Puerto Rico deserve better. They deserve a government that gives them a voice. They deserve to be granted access to an equitable share of federal resources. The abhorrent classifications and ignorance of Puerto Rico by Hinchcliffe and the Trump administration not only ignore the needs of 3.2 million people but also violate the sacred American principles of integrity, democracy, and autonomy. Yet the only way to expose this injustice is to fight it—with our hearts, votes, and words.
As Americans and as people, we can’t be silent anymore.
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