A delegate representing the U.S. Virgin Islands has, in the most polite and diplomatic way possible, said there’s no need for Donald Trump to visit the islands, which are still recovering from hurricanes Irma and Maria.
BuzzFeed News reports that Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat, had voiced concern last week over Trump’s visit to Puerto Rico but his neglecting to visit the Virgin Islands. The devastation the islands suffered from two back-to-back storms seemed like an afterthought.
Now, a week after Trump congratulated the Puerto Rican governor on that island’s “incredible” death toll (a number that has since gone up and likely will continue to) and lobbed cheap paper towels into a crowd like he was one of those NBA players he’s not inviting to the White House, Plaskett now thinks a visit from the president to the Virgin Islands isn’t really necessary.
Huh. Wonder why.
In fact, Plaskett told BuzzFeed News that Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the islands last Friday was good enough. Pence and his wife, Karen, visited a small church that had been damaged by the storms, visited a shelter and took a helicopter ride to survey damage.
“I think you can tell when someone is putting on a show, but I believe the conversations [the Pences] had with people, young people, the workers, the volunteers, were genuine,” Plaskett told BuzzFeed.
While she told the online outlet that a visit from a sitting U.S. president would be “very gratifying” to the islands’ residents (you sure, fam?), it’s not “necessary” in terms of the Virgin Islands’ rebuilding effort.
In short: The Trumps and their trash-ass towels can stay their asses at home.
Read more at BuzzFeed News.