Like just about everything that President Donald Trump touches, his response to the hurricane disaster that ravaged Puerto Rico has turned to shit. I don’t know if Trump was fully aware when he took the job that Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States and that the 1.8 million people without food or water are U.S. citizens. But he knows now. And while I know that the depths to which this presidency may fall are bottomless, the lack of empathy from this administration as people are dying without food, water or aid is troubling.
On Saturday, while Carmen Yulín Cruz, mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, was knee-deep in black water trying to save people, the president had the audacity to tweet:
President Devil’s Afterbirth literally not only bashed the mayor, who is doing everything she can to save the people of Puerto Rico, but also blew another racist dog whistle by perpetuating a racist stereotype that Puerto Ricans are lazy.
Let this sink in: 1.8 million people are without power, food or help, and the president of the United States, who still hasn’t stepped foot there since the devastation happened, is punching them while they’re down. Not only down, but shell-shocked. I don’t know this America. I don’t know this level of heartlessness. I don’t know what has to be missing inside your heart to see the photos of people struggling and attack while they are asking for help.
Saturday Night Live’s Michael Che was right: He is a bitch.
Now, this bitch-ass president wouldn’t cancel his fucking golf trip to the Presidents Cup tournament at Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City, N.J., so while millions of Puerto Ricans are struggling to find their footing, Trump was at a golfing event. And if that wasn’t insensitive enough, he dedicated the trophy to victims of recent hurricanes.
“On behalf of all the people in Texas and all of the people of—if you look today and you see what’s happening, how horrible it is, but we have it under really great control—Puerto Rico, and the people of Florida who have suffered over this last short period of time with the hurricanes, I want to just remember them,” Trump said, HuffPost reports.
“And we’re going to dedicate this trophy to all of those people that went through so much that we love, a part of our great state, really a part of our great nation,” he added.
And then Trump got down to the stuff he really cares about, golf: “And I’ll tell you what—I’ve been watching this thing from the beginning. And I have to say, our Team USA, wow, did you play well.”
I just got off the phone with the 1.8 million people without aid in Puerto Rico—they asked if the president could turn the trophy sideways and shove it up his ass.
I guess it would take a tiki-torch-carrying, hate-filled Russian man with a shitty haircut and khaki pants kneeling during the national anthem while taking a coal-mining job from an American-born Midwestern white man inside San Juan for Trump to care about Puerto Rico, but this level of insensitivity is heartbreaking, though, sadly, not surprising.
Thankfully, there was one red-blooded American at the event who put things in perspective when he yelled, “You don’t give a shit about Puerto Rico!” during Trump’s dumb-ass speech.
Thank God for this person. It goes without saying, but I guess this is where we are: Puerto Ricans don’t want your stupid-ass trophy dedication—they want help. It would be nice if, for once, the president could act as if nonwhite lives matter, but I know that’s asking a lot for a white supremacist.
Read more at HuffPost.