President Donald Trump has said that nobody could have done what he did to help Puerto Rico, lamenting that he gets ‘so little appreciation’.
Trump tweeted the remark on Sunday night, continuing his insistence that the federal government is doing all it can to help the US territory recover from Hurricane Maria’s devastation last month.
Although parts of the capital city San Juan are approaching normalcy, nearly 90 percent of the island remains without power, with estimates of up to four months for full restoration of utilities.
‘Nobody could have done what I’ve done for #PuertoRico with so little appreciation. So much work!’ Trump tweeted, along with an eight-minute video about relief work on the island, which concluded with a slow-motion montage of his recent visit set to swelling music.
Trump’s tweet included an eight-minute montage of relief efforts, including this clip of a MH-53E Sea Dragon moving concrete barriers to repair the Guajataca Dam
An MH-53E Sea Dragon from the “Vanguard” of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron prepares to transport concrete barriers to help repair the Guajataca Dam in Quebradillas
The Navy has worked to shore up the damaged dam, which failed after Hurricane Maria. Trump says he has gotten ‘so little appreciation’ for the recovery work
‘What the fake news media will not show you in Puerto Rico,’ a title card at the beginning of the video read.
The video showed clips of military aircraft delivering supplies, and a MH-53E Sea Dragon moving concrete barriers to repair the Guajataca Dam.
Federal relief workers also spoke about their work delivering medicine, clearing roads, and working with local authorities to return electricity to the island.
Earlier in the week, Trump was in a war of words with San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, who criticized his response to the disaster.
A woman washes her hair in the Espiritu Santo river on Sunday more than two weeks after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. Only 11.7 percent of Puerto Rico’s electricity has been restored and some residents are going to the river to cool off, wash clothes, or bathe
Carmen Cintron Torres takes a break from cleaning debris in front of her home in Barranquitas, Puerto Rico on Saturday. The flooded river next to her home destroyed a local bridge
US Army 1st Special Force Command Sgt. Kenneth McAnally surveys a section of a road that collapsed and continues to erode in Puerto Rico on Saturday
The president has harshly criticized Cruz and others who have questioned his administration’s relief efforts, calling them ‘politically motivated ingrates.’
He also slammed the ‘poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help.’
In the days after the hurricane hit, relief supplies did pile up with no way to distribute them, after private truckers failed to show up for work.
On Wednesday, DailyMail.com reported that San Juan was close to normalcy, with bustling Starbucks and even a strip club reopening in the capital.
Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of Puerto Rican capital San Juan, wore a t-shirt reading ‘Nasty’ as she criticized Trump over his visit to the devastated island nation
Trump is seen speaking to reporters on Saturday. He says he gets no appreciation for the federal government’s assistance to the island territory of Puerto Rico
Beyond the city limits, however, the semblance of normality quickly fades to desperation and misery.
Patchy relief efforts have left poor Puerto Ricans living within a few miles of the capital with no power, medicine and little to eat or drink.
‘There’s a Chinese restaurant open, a couple of bakeries, but you won’t find much to eat. FEMA brought us two trailers of food but it’s all gone,’ said Orlando Carcano, 31, who lives in Loiza 17 miles east of the capital.
‘I spoke with someone from the authorities and the electricity should be coming back next February,’ he said.