WASHINGTON.— The president, Donald Trump, allegedly weighed the idea of changing Puerto Rico for Greenland, because, in his words, the island was “dirty” and its people “poor”, a former high-level official of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS, for its acronym in English).
Miles Taylor, then DHS Chief of Staff, led until April 2019 by Kirstjen Nielsen, has made numerous statements against the Trump Administration in recent days, but his comments on Puerto Rico have generated a stir on social media, particularly among the Puerto Rican community.
Taylor said in an interview with MSNBC that, in August 2018, during a meeting with him and other high-ranking officials, Trump asked if he could do that exchange between Puerto Rico - a US territory since 1898 - and Greenland, “because, in his words, Puerto Rico was dirty, and the people were poor ”.
[Follow our coverage of the 2020 presidential elections]
According to Taylor, this was not a "joke" , because Trump "expressed deep animosity against the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes."
Trump allegedly made those comments before dispatching high-level DHS officials to Puerto Rico in September of that year to obtain reports from the ground on recovery efforts on the island after Hurricanes Harvey and María in September. of 2017.
The president paid a three-hour visit to Puerto Rico on October 3, 2017, and his brief stop caused a stir with images showing him throwing rolls of paper towels into a crowd gathered at a church in San Juan. His visit, far from the most devastated areas of the island, generated criticism for his alleged insensitivity.
Now, Taylor said that Trump's comments at that meeting made him feel bad because, in his opinion, after the devastating hurricanes in 2017, Trump's duty was to support Puerto Rico and not try to sell it to a foreign country.
Currently, Greenland, the world's largest island, is an autonomous territory under the control of Denmark, which contributes two-thirds of its budget. Most of its inhabitants are Inuit, an Eskimo people.
Taylor has earned the repudiation of Trump and the White House for becoming a staunch critic of the Administration in interviews with the press and by participating in an ad by the group 'Republican Voters Against Trump'.
The former DHS official participated in many of the meetings in which they planned some of the most controversial immigration policies.
How does Trump defend himself?
The president has called him a "dissatisfied former employee" and suggested that he did not even know him.
To that, Taylor responded by posting numerous photos on his Twitter account in meetings with Trump at the White House.
Taylor believes that his mission now is to tell what he saw because, if he had made these complaints last year, Trump “ would have buried them; he is a master of distraction ”.
For the White House, however, Taylor is an opportunist who wants to capitalize on the moment, a few months before the general election.
"This individual is another creature from the Washington, DC swamp, who never understood the importance of the president's agenda, or why the people chose him, and clearly just wants to profit," said White House spokesman Judd Deere. , in a written statement.
[They criticize Trump's slow response to the emergency generated by the earthquakes in Puerto Rico]
"President Trump has accomplished an unprecedented number of accomplishments, despite government bureaucrats who are only there for their own benefit, not for the forgotten men and women of this country," Deere said.
The problem is "corruption", says admiral
In an exclusive interview with Noticias Telemundo, Admiral Peter Brown, in charge of issues related to the recovery of Puerto Rico at the White House, said that Trump has taken numerous measures to help the island and provide funds and resources for its development.
In his opinion, Trump's concern with corruption problems on the island should not be confused with “racism”.
[Puerto Rico fears that reconstruction funds will go to Trump's wall]
"The President and the Administration fully support the long-term recovery of Puerto Rico and, at the same time, the President has been very firm in his concern about the historical corruption in the public sector that has occurred in the past," said Brown.
"I think that sometimes this is misinterpreted as ill will towards the people of Puerto Rico" because corruption "has the net effect of diverting resources from the people who need them most," he emphasized.
When specifically asked if Trump is racist towards Puerto Ricans and Latinos in general, Brown replied: “I can assure you that the president considers that Hispanics, Latin Americans, Puerto Ricans, who are absolutely US citizens, deserve every opportunity that the US can. offer".
"In my conversations with him, I have never heard the president say anything negative about the people of Puerto Rico or Hispanics," said Brown, repeating that his concern is that corruption will divert resources on the island.
US Admiral Peter Brown is on a three-day tour of Puerto Rico, between August 18 and 20, 2020, as part of an initiative between the public and private sectors to promote the strengthening of manufacturing on the island. Photo courtesy of Admiral Peter Brown's office / Telemundo News
Brown is in Puerto Rico as part of a 'Tour on Industrial Capabilities', which ends this Friday and in which officials from the public and private sectors analyze the needs on the island to strengthen manufacturing there.
“It is true that Puerto Rico has not fully recovered from the crises it has had, due to one disaster after another, but that will take an effort of multiple years, a decade or more, but I am optimistic about the progress and pace of recovery works, ”Brown said.
[Two years after María, in Puerto Rico there are still people who do not recover their homes]
Hurricane Maria, considered the deadliest in a century, left nearly 3,000 dead and massive economic damage. To date, the US government has deployed numerous experts and has designated nearly $ 46 billion for reconstruction efforts there, Brown said.
Activists from the Puerto Rican diaspora point out that the island still faces challenges to fully recover , and now it has to battle against the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis it has generated.
Speaking to Noticias Telemundo, Federico A. de Jesús, a Democratic strategist, said that, in his opinion, Trump should not forget “two fundamental facts: that countries are not sold or bought in the 21st century and that Puerto Ricans are citizens of his country and we are not a casino or a golf course for him to do whatever he wants with us ”.
"Trump's hatred of the Puerto Rican nation will be answered in the diaspora with our votes," promised de Jesús.
