Hurricane Trump

One year on from Hurricane Maria, the president continues to deny the magnitude of the tragedy.

Tomorrow will be the first anniversary of Hurricane Maria, which affected the island of Puerto Rico causing devastating consequences: thousands of deaths, hundreds of thousands of refugees, and desperate calls for international aid by local authorities in response to the lack of interest in helping the island shown by the Donald Trump administration.

Several days earlier, the territory had already been hit by Hurricane Irma, which had caused around a dozen fatalities. However, the arrival of Maria was very different, both in terms of the severe material damage caused by the meteorological phenomenon itself and the chaotic efforts to re-establish power and water supplies, as well as with regard to the allocation of aid in the following months. Trump’s attitude was a particular target of criticism. Following what amounts to the worst natural disaster of his presidency to date, it took the head of state 13 days to visit the island. The emergency aid sent by the federal government was so inadequate that local authorities and social groups protested vehemently.

Trump has always minimized the magnitude of the disaster. This is incomprehensible from any point of view, given that the undeniable damage is not a question of political opinion and that he is ultimately responsible for the government of a territory that since 1952 has been regarded by the U.S. as an associated state and whose inhabitants have been U.S. citizens since 1917—albeit with limited rights.

The president has not changed his attitude. One year on from the tragedy, the outcome could not be more negative. Materially speaking, some of the island’s major infrastructures remain damaged; as far as the human impact is concerned, some 200,000 people -- 5.5 percent of the island’s population -- have emigrated to mainland U.S., while politically, a sense of neglect has penetrated the community. Puerto Rico has by no means returned to normal.

Proof of Trump’s ignorance about what is still happening in an unincorporated U.S. territory lies in the fact that, while investigators and experts on the area indicate that the official death toll of the tragedy has risen to some 3,000, the president claimed a few days ago, via Twitter as usual, that the data were inaccurate and had in fact been invented by the Democrats. It should be pointed out that the majority of the fatalities occurred in the days following the hurricane, when the lack of electricity and drinking water severely affected the level of care available to the wounded. Harvard University has estimated the death toll to be as high as 4,645.

The governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, is right in denouncing the treatment of Puerto Ricans by the U.S. as “second-class citizens.” This is not simply a matter concerning federal management of the damage caused by Maria. Data made public on Monday by the World Bank indicates that in the last few years, and particularly since 2016, inequality on the island has risen. With respect to Puerto Rico, Trump has displayed two characteristics of his understanding of politics: on the one hand, he has tried, once again, to conceal by means of aggressive rhetoric what is inefficient management of an emergency; on the other, it appears that he does not consider all U.S. citizens as equals. Puerto Rico does not deserve this.