At The Root, we don’t employ a psychologist or a psychiatrist (although Michael Harriot serves as the senior wypipoloigist on staff), so we are unable to assess the president’s mental health. Therefore no one on The Root staff can currently say whether or not the president suffers from some narcissist personality disorder.
However, as someone who has covered the president since before he took office, I can tell you, based on my extensive knowledge of all things Trump, that the man sleeps holding a photo of himself holding a photo of himself.
As one of the biggest hurricanes to hit the Carolinas in the last fifty years approaches landfall, leading to the evacuation of over one million people, Trump spent his energy lavishing praise on himself and the work he’s done since assuming the role as Russia’s deputy director of White House operations.
Oh, and despite giving himself an A+ on the hurricane Maria relief efforts, Trump took a moment to bash the entire island of Puerto Rico and the mayor San Juan who was critical of his non-existent hurricane relief efforts.
Real presidential.
Currently, one million Americans are wondering what kind of home, if any, they will be able to return to after Hurricane Florence touches down and the president of people who let their dogs eat at the dining room table is busy patting himself on the ass with a rolled-up Forbes magazine.
Here’s how Politico described the ongoing hardships of those still recovering from Hurricane Maria, the skewed death toll and the feud between San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz.
While Trump claimed that his administration did a “great job” in Puerto Rico, recovery efforts on the island are ongoing even as the scale of Hurricane Maria’s toll has only recently become clear. A recent report sponsored by the Puerto Rican government showed nearly 3,000 people died as a result of the storm, a figure much higher than the official death toll of 64, which the federal government maintained for months.
Efforts to distribute food and supplies in the wake of the storm were marred by logistical difficulties. Power outages on the island lasted for months in some locations.
In the immediate wake of the storm, Cruz was outspoken in her criticism of the president, who visited the island in the days after the storm passed and was video taped flipping rolls of paper towels to a crowd who had gathered to see him. Trump and Cruz feuded openly, with the mayor calling the president’s visit to the island “insulting” and Trump saying Cruz showed “poor leadership.”
Cruz, in an interview with Newsweek published on Tuesday, called the federal government’s response a “stain for FEMA and Trump’s reputation.” At a briefing on Hurricane Florence on Tuesday, the president on Tuesday labeled his team’s response to Maria an “incredible unsung success.”
A Politico investigation also found that the president’s response to Hurricane Harvey, which ravished parts of Texas, was much faster and much more efficient than the efforts made to assist Puerto Rico almost a month later.
Within six days of Hurricane Harvey, U.S. Northern Command had deployed 73 helicopters over Houston, which are critical for saving victims and delivering emergency supplies. It took at least three weeks after Maria before it had more than 70 helicopters flying above Puerto Rico.
Nine days after the respective hurricanes, FEMA had approved $141.8 million in individual assistance to Harvey victims, versus just $6.2 million for Maria victims.
During the first nine days after Harvey, FEMA provided 5.1 million meals, 4.5 million liters of water and over 20,000 tarps to Houston; but in the same period, it delivered just 1.6 million meals, 2.8 million liters of water and roughly 5,000 tarps to Puerto Rico.
Nine days after Harvey, the federal government had 30,000 personnel in the Houston region, compared with 10,000 at the same point after Maria.
It took just 10 days for FEMA to approve permanent disaster work for Texas, compared with 43 days for Puerto Rico.
Seventy-eight days after each hurricane, FEMA had approved 39 percent of federal applications for relief from victims of Harvey, versus 28 percent for Maria.
There is a stark difference between the response efforts in Puerto Rico and Texas and I wish I could figure out why that is. I’m struggling to come up with why the president of people who don’t own Nikes but would like to set a pair on fire would treat one group of Americans so much different than another group of Americans given that they were both struggling with the after-effects of a natural disaster.
If anyone has an idea as to why this might be, please leave a note in the comments because I’m drawing a blank.
Well, at least the president remembered the tragedy of 9/11 and even tweeted a picture of the solemn White House memorial service. However, savvy Twitter sleuths quickly discovered that the photo was actually from last year’s observance of the tragedy.
When will we get some relief from this natural disaster of a president?