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OPINION | Trump and the politics of contempt

2020-07-14T23:23:16.528Z


The idea of ​​selling the island of Puerto Rico, of abandoning it to its fate after being devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017, reflects the President of the United States as he is. As it always has been. C…


Outrage over report on Trump and Puerto Rico 1:43

Editor's Note:  Camilo Egaña  is Camilo's driver. The opinions expressed in this article are exclusive to the author.

(CNN Spanish) - Less than four months after the presidential elections in the United States, and after three and a half years in the White House and half a life of strutting in the media, nobody should be surprised at what Donald says and does Trump.

The idea of ​​selling the island of Puerto Rico, of abandoning it to its fate after being devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017, reflects the President of the United States as he is. As it always has been. As it always will be.

The revelation made to The New York Times by Elaine Duke, a former secretary of homeland security, is not surprising. Unworthy but not surprising.

Just when Trump asked - as if speaking before a shareholders' meeting - if his government could get rid of that "asset" - verbatim phrase - hundreds of thousands of human beings on the island lacked food, electricity, or the possibility of locating and bury their dead; they were without hope or help from the federal administration and at the mercy of local authorities who seemed more willing to please Trump than his people.

Duke herself added that that Trump idea was not even considered or discussed in the government.

About 3,000 people died as a result of that cyclone and its aftermath.

I remember in those days some of my colleagues on CNN sharing food and water with those men and women, who seemed the saddest on the planet.

  • READ: OPINION | That can't happen here

And I remember an exultant Trump, like an old boy in an amusement park, throwing rolls of paper towels at the victims.

In 2018, however, Trump insisted that his handling of the debacle in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria had been "an incredible and unrecognized success."

Also that year, several White House officials told congressional leaders that the president did not want additional aid funds to be sent to the island.

And the president himself criticized Puerto Rican leaders for administering hundreds of millions of dollars in funds to recover from the hurricane, accusing them of spending part of that money on different things.

The mere fact of having thought about getting rid of Puerto Rico when the island, the territory of the United States, needed the most help, shows who Donald Trump is and who he has been.

At that time, Trump despised the ties of all kinds that unite the island with the United States, he despised the Puerto Ricans who have died for the United States. And he even despised the Puerto Ricans who support him as president.

Less than four months before the presidential elections in the United States, it would be pertinent to bear in mind that contempt for politics leads to politics of contempt. And creatures like Donald Trump.

Puerto Ricans living on the island cannot vote in the United States presidential election, but the millions who have moved to the mainland do.

The terrible thing is that voters almost never feel responsible for the government's failures that they have voted for.

Alberto Moravia, an Italian writer born before the Tik Tok era, said so. And so things are going.

Humanitarian aid Puerto Rico

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-07-14

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