......... Much as Hurricane Maria was a predictable catastrophe, so is Trump’s cruel reaction. It is what one would expect from a narcissist unable to detach an external crisis from his own reputation. Much as Trump invents fake threats–voter fraud, soaring crime, “The Bowling Green Massacre”–he denies real crises, often while fabricating fake triumphs. Even when dealing with a disaster that is, for once, not caused by him, Trump cannot fathom the suffering others experience as anything other than a potential blight on his image, and it appears that he attempts to remove that suffering from public view. On September 27, the White House announced that all U.S. lawmakers would be prohibited from visiting the island, thereby reducing oversight and official complaints about the botched recovery.
Under Trump logic, if Puerto Rico is somehow to blame for getting damaged by a hurricane–as he implied on Twitter–then Trump is not at fault. But if Trump, as president, must grudgingly acknowledge the aftermath, then that aftermath must be presented as a success. On the same day Trump castigated the island for its debt crisis, he tweeted, “Food, water, and medical are top priorities–and doing well”–despite considerable evidence to the contrary. It took a week of public outcry for supplies to be sent. Trump’s alternative facts are not merely annoying: They kill.
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Trump, a president who is applauded for feats like reading off a teleprompter without being egregiously racist, is held to the lowest standard possible, yet still manages to not meet it, so the standard is continually moved to accommodate his mounting failures. After months of fending off Trump-made disasters–TrumpCare, unconstitutional executive orders, flirtations with nuclear war–few Americans expected him to handle a natural disaster or express empathy for those hurt by it. Fewer expected that Trump would grant Puerto Rico, a territory of mostly non-white, Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens, the same respect as a U.S. state.
Trump’s heartlessness still has the capacity to shock, but it does not surprise. Hurricane Maria is not Trump’s Katrina: It’s just Trump being Trump, the presidency its own existential threat. That it is reasonable to expect so little from a president is its own tragedy, but that should not stop people from demanding more.
Some have posited that perhaps Trump does not realize that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. This is the kind of take that seems insulting but is actually generous. Trump knows Puerto Rico well: He ran a golf course there that defaulted in 2011, leaving Puerto Rican taxpayers on the hook for $32.7 million. The Puerto Rican debt Trump complained about in his tweet is, in fact, due in part to Trump. He is cognizant of the island, but appears to view it only as a burdensome investment and an irrelevant voter pool. His apathy toward Puerto Rico’s crisis resembles his cavalier attitude toward fellow territory Guam, which was threatened in August with North Korean nuclear strikes. The notoriety will be good for tourism, Trump told Guam’s governor.
The waive of the Jones Act lasts for only 10 days, but it will take years for Puerto Rico to rebuild, if it can at all. The island is expected to be without power for at least half a year; its agriculture is decimated; its already battered economy is on the verge of collapse. We are in the early stages of what will likely be one of the worst U.S. humanitarian crises of the 21st century, with a self-serving president whose fear of admitting failure leads to a denial of problems, and, in turn, to a denial of resources for citizens.
Trump knew Hurricane Maria was coming, and did nothing. Americans saw Trump’s response coming, and begged for Puerto Rico to be saved. But social media screams cannot move ships; instead, we are left staring helplessly at our screens as the reality-TV president changes the channel.
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