"At @ricardorossello request, @POTUS has authorized the Jones Act be waived for Puerto Rico. It will go into effect immediately," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted Thursday morning.

Her tweet comes after Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said he asked the White House to loosen the regulations Wednesday night.

He joined the growing list of officials who argued that lifting the the Jones Act -- a federal law designed to protect the financial interests of US shipbuilders by limiting shipping by foreign vessels -- would help expedite supplies to the ravaged island. The act has had the unintended consequence of making it twice as expensive to ship things from the US mainland to Puerto Rico as it is to ship from any other foreign port in the world, according to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain's office.

The act was quickly lifted to help Texas and Florida in the wake of hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The Department of Homeland Security said it was able to lift the restrictions quickly because the Department of Defense requested a waiver for those states and the department hadn't yet done so for Puerto Rico. Trump told reporters on Wednesday that "we're thinking" about lifting the law, but added that a "lot of shippers" didn't want it lifted. What the Jones Act controversy is all about In the wake of the devastation in Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz -- along with other US politicians, including McCain and Marco Rubio, R-Florida -- had urged the suspension of the Jones Act in order to speed up supply deliveries. </s> As Puerto Rico struggles amid mass power outages and food and water shortages, some politicians and experts say that one 97-year-old maritime law will make recovering from the disaster much more difficult.

The Jones Act, passed after World War I to protect the U.S. ship-building industry, requires that domestic shipping must be conducted by U.S.-owned, U.S.-made ships staffed by American crews. This has meant that Puerto Rico, an island that relies on imports from the U.S., pays more than twice as much as neighboring islands for American goods, according to a report by former International Monetary Fund economists.

Nydia Velázquez, a Puerto Rican-born congresswoman who represents parts of New York City, is leading the call for a one-year suspension of the act while the island rebuilds from hurricane damage.

“The island is now facing an unprecedented uphill battle to rebuild its homes, businesses and communities,” said Velázquez in a letter written to the Department of Homeland Security on Monday and signed by seven other members of Congress. “Temporarily loosening these requirements – for the express purpose of disaster recovery – will allow Puerto Rico to have more access to the oil needed for its power plants, food, medicines, clothing, and building supplies.”

The Department of Homeland Security suspended the Jones Act on Sept. 8 because of disruptions of the oil supply system after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, but the waiver expired on Sept. 22. Hurricane Maria hit on Sept. 20, knocking out all power to the island and nearly all cell phone towers.

“My expectation is to rebuild stronger than ever,” Gov. Ricardo Rossello told NBC News. “But clearly if this is not taken seriously ... Puerto Rico is going to collapse into a humanitarian crisis.”

The Trump administration said this week it would not extend the waiver for Puerto Rico. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that officials think that waiving the Jones Act would be unnecessary.

An assessment by Customs and Border Protection, an office of Homeland Security, showed there was “sufficient capacity” of U.S.-flagged vessels to move commodities to Puerto Rico, said spokesman Gregory Moore, in a statement to Reuters.

“The limitation is going to be port capacity to offload and transit, not vessel availability,” Moore said.

Democratic Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez from Illinois on Tuesday criticized leaving the Jones Act in place, amid Puerto Rico's financial crisis. The territory has been in a severe recession since 2006 and declared a form of bankruptcy earlier this year.

Gutiérrez, who was among those who signed Velázquez’s letter to the Department of Homeland Security, said the U.S. government should suspend the Jones Act at least for a decade if not repeal it permanently.

“Since it was imposed on Puerto Rico, the Jones Act has cost Puerto Rican consumers more than all the money owed to Wall Street, yet the president reminds us of the debt in his tweets,” he said on the floor of Congress. “Let the ships flow as quickly and as cheaply from wherever they may come from because this is an emergency.”

Other politicians have spoken out in the past against the Jones Act for needlessly hurting Puerto Rico’s economy.

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona first introduced legislation to repeal the law in 2010 and tried again in July.

“I have long advocated the repeal of the Jones Act, an archaic and burdensome law that hinders free trade, stifles the economy, and ultimately harms consumers,” he said.

On Tuesday, McCain said he was urging the Department of Homeland Security to waive the act for Puerto Rico to aid its recovery efforts. In a letter to Acting Secretary Elaine Duke, he also asked that it assess how a long-term waiver or full repeal would effect hurricane-damaged communities, including those in Florida and Texas.

Economists at the University of Puerto Rico found that the Jones Act cost the island’s economy $17 billion between 1990 and 2010, according to a 2012 report.

Republican Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama cited this study in 2016 when he, too, called for Puerto Rico to be exempt from the Jones Act. Three American territories are exempt from the Jones Act: the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa.

Other studies have said the Jones Act costs Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska about $2.8 billion to $9.8 billion per year.

A report by the Government Accountability Office in 2013 said that although the Jones Act may make imports to the island more expensive, the dedicated routes also ensure reliability and keep more than 1,400 American jobs.

In April, the Trump administration had appeared to be moving forward with an Obama-era proposal to reverse the Jones Act, but it was withdrawn in May.

The Jones Act was last temporarily waived in December of 2012 so that petroleum products could be delivered for relief assistance after superstorm Sandy.

Op-eds in major national newspapers have endorsed calls to get rid of the act, including one published Monday in The New York Times by Nelson A. Denis, a former New York state assemblyman who has written extensively on Puerto Rico's economic crisis.

“A humanitarian crisis is about to explode in Puerto Rico,” Denis wrote. “But the consequences of Jones Act relief would be immediate and powerful. This is not the time to price-gouge the entire population. It is time for Congress to act ethically and responsibly and suspend the Jones Act in Puerto Rico.”

The consequences of leaving the Jones Act in place could be dire for the 3.5 million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico, some experts warn.

“It means extending the suffering,” said Dennis Nixon, a professor of marine law at the University of Rhode Island. “It’s hot there today, there’s a risk of thunder showers. They’ve got no electricity, no drinking water."

Nixon said that it could lead to an even more painful financial crisis for Puerto Ricans, who might start leaving the island in a forced mass migration to the U.S.

"It would hugely accelerate the ability to move goods into Puerto Rico, because you’d basically be getting a 20 percent discount on everything," he said.



Jonathan Gutoff, a maritime law professor at the Roger Williams University School of Law in Bristol, Rhode Island, said that even though the Jones Act may not be hindering aid from reaching the island, it does increase prices for consumers and makes it harder for businesses to market their exports.

“Given that Puerto Rico is suffering from a fiscal crisis and the aftermath of Maria, anything to help Puerto Ricans should be done and the Jones Act should be suspended,” he said.

Whether or not to repeal the act is a tougher question, Gutoff said. Because of the role of the Jones Act in maintaining the American boat building industry for offshore work, more study should be done before a repeal, he said.

The American Maritime Partnership said it is actively working with the Trump administration, FEMA, The United States Maritime Administration (MARAD), and other relief organizations to deliver food, fuel, first aid supplies and building materials to Puerto Rico. Approximately 9,500 containers of goods have already arrived on the island to help in recovery efforts, according to the partnership.

“A steady stream of additional supplies keeps arriving in Puerto Rico on American vessels and on international ships from around the world,” said the charmain of the partnership, Thomas Allegretti. “The problem now is distributing supplies from Puerto Rico’s ports inland by surface transportation.”



The Shipbuilders Council of America did not immediately respond for comment on the Jones Act, but according to its website the council strongly supports the act, calling it "vital to America’s economic, national and homeland security." </s> On the defensive over the pace of federal help for Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans cleared the way Thursday for more supplies and government cash for the hurricane-ravaged U.S. island.

Trump waived federal restrictions on foreign ships delivering cargo. And House Speaker Paul Ryan said the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief account will get a $6.7 billion boost by the end of the week. Trump and his advisers, meanwhile, defended the administration's response to the devastation on the island, which was hit by Hurricane Maria Sept. 20 with many people left desperate for power, food and other supplies.

"The electric power grid in Puerto Rico is totally shot. Large numbers of generators are now on Island. Food and water on site," Trump tweeted early in the day.

The developments Thursday came after Trump came under sharp criticism for what critics said was a too-slow response to a humanitarian crisis among Puerto Rico's 3.4 million residents.

From the White House driveway to cable television, a squad of advisers defended the president's response and described the relief efforts as well underway, with most hospitals "operational."

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke said she signed the waiver of a federal law called the Jones Act to clear the way for foreign-flagged ships to deliver supplies between U.S. ports.

"You are seeing devastation in Puerto Rico. That is the fault of the hurricane," Duke told reporters in the White House driveway. "The relief effort is under control."

Tom Bossert, Trump's homeland security adviser, said the impression of a slow response isn't so much wrong as it is outdated. He said more than 40 of the island's 69 hospitals are accepting patients.

And FEMA Administrator Brock Long said the efforts have been hampered by damaged airports and ports on the island.

"The question is that last mile," Long told CNN, speaking of the difficulty of getting aid all the way to those in need.

Ryan, meanwhile, said a "huge capital injection will occur in two days" to help Puerto Rico recover. He noted Trump had waived a matching funds requirement, which means the cash-strapped island won't have to contribute to the initial costs of the federal assistance. The Wisconsin Republican said he expects the Trump administration to send Congress a request for a long-term recovery package once damage assessments are conducted.

"We will quickly act on that request," Ryan said.

Duke said the shipping waiver came in response to a request from Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello. The waiver, the White House said, would go into effect immediately.

Rossello responded on Twitter to Trump's action: "Thank you @POTUS."

Duke had waived the law earlier this month to help ease fuel shortages in the Southeast following hurricanes Harvey and Irma. That order included Puerto Rico but expired last week, shortly after Maria struck.

The Trump administration initially said a waiver was not needed for Puerto Rico because there were enough U.S.-flagged ships available to ferry goods to the island. </s> Puerto Rico’s governor said officials were working to get food, fuel and water “everywhere on the island” as millions of people continued to suffer without the basics and reports emerged of vital supplies stranded at Puerto Rico’s main port.

About 97% of the US commonwealth’s 3.4 million residents were still in the dark Wednesday, one week after Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said. About half the residents do not have running water.

Puerto Ricans are waiting hours in line to get gas, food and cash. Gas stations and supermarkets are rationing supplies, while banks are running low on cash.

“Right now we are in emergency mode,” Rosselló said on Wednesday afternoon. “Our focus is not necessarily restoring energy. The energy grid has been destroyed. … And we need to rebuild it. That does not get rebuilt in days.”

Asked if he thought the federal government was doing everything it can to help the island, Rosselló said, “Well, they are. This is an unprecedented event. President Trump has been in close communication with me practically every day making sure we have the assets, giving orders to his team so that they can execute.”

The governor said getting aid where it’s needed has been a challenge because of the magnitude of the destruction on the island.

“This has been the biggest catastrophe in the history Puerto Rico in terms of natural disasters,” he said.

Critics said the government’s aid effort could be improved if Washington lifted the Jones Act, an obscure, nearly 100-year-old law that requires all goods ferried between US ports to be carried on ships built, owned and operated by Americans. The law had the unintended consequence of making it more expensive to ship things from the US mainland to Puerto Rico. Trump said Wednesday “we’re thinking” about lifting the Jones Act for Puerto Rican ports in the wake of Hurricane Maria, but he said a “lot of shippers” don’t want it lifted.

Rosselló said he had not asked the President to lift the Jones Act so aid might flow more fully to Puerto Rico. “I did not solicit that to him personally but it is something that would help Puerto Rico, certainly, at least in the short run,” Rosselló said.

As desperate Puerto Ricans wait for aid, there’s not enough food to go around. In the town of Utuado, Lydia Rivera has started to ration crackers and drink rainwater to keep her two grandchildren alive.

The hurricane killed 16 people in Puerto Rico, 27 in the island nation of Dominica and one in the US Virgin Islands. As Puerto Rico attempts to recover from the disaster, there were signs that aid sent from the US mainland isn’t making it to people in need. And the US recovery efforts in Puerto Rico have been markedly different from the recent responses to other Americans in hurricane-stricken Texas and Florida.

With supplies running out, many Puerto Ricans are collecting water from mountain streams.

Harry Torres said the water is all they have for cleaning and drinking until help comes. They’ve heard on the radio that trucks loaded with supplies from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have arrived on the island.

Some help began arriving. On Wednesday, a plane carrying 3,500 pounds of water, Army meals ready-to-eat, diapers and other supplies headed from Florida to Puerto Rico. The plane, which usually carries out intelligence missions, returned to the US mainland with dozens of family members of federal employees.

Two military officials told CNN on Wednesday that another 2,000 to 3,000 US troops will be sent to Puerto Rico in the coming days to assist with aid. One official with US Northern Command said there are approximately 2,500 active-duty troops in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. This does not include National Guard forces.

“We are getting help from the federal government, but this is an unprecedented set of circumstances,” Rosselló said Wednesday. “We want to make sure that we recognize that a lot of resources are coming in. They are coming in by air or by boats. But they are starting to execute.”

Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have seen fewer personnel since Hurricane Maria hit than Texas and Florida did during recent hurricanes in those states.

FEMA said more than 10,000 federal staff members were on the ground in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands assisting search-and-rescue and recovery efforts.

Trump announced he will visit Puerto Rico next Tuesday, nearly two weeks after Maria struck the US commonwealth.

“Puerto Rico is a very difficult situation,” he said Wednesday. “I feel so badly for the people.”

The President has faced criticism for his response to Puerto Rico, compared with Texas and Florida — two states he visited within four days of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

With nearly all Puerto Ricans still without power Wednesday, the lack of electricity and fuel have yielded dire consequences.

At a hospital in San Juan, two people died in an intensive care unit after it ran out of diesel, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said.

Residents are relying on generators to keep appliances such as air conditioners, medical devices and refrigerators running.

At the San Jorge Children’s Hospital in San Juan, 12 children depend on ventilators to survive, but the hospital has only a limited amount of fuel for generators, said Domingo Cruz Vivaldi, the hospital’s executive director.

The hospital is the largest private children’s medical center in the Caribbean. When the hospital ran out of diesel Monday, the ventilators had to run on batteries for hours until another hospital offered them fuel.

“We were very thankful for that. We were very lucky,” Cruz Vivaldi said.

The hospital is working to secure more gas, he said, because that diesel will only last about two days.

‘People are starting to get desperate’

Before sunrise every day, dozens of people hauling red plastic gas cans start lining up at gas stations. They need fuel to power their cars in case of an emergency or to keep generators running at home.

Some wait for up to six hours armed with lawn chairs and umbrellas.

“If the gasoline arrives, it will fix our problems,” Utuado Mayor Ernesto Irizarry said. “People are starting to get desperate,”

At least 60 people have been arrested for violating the overnight curfew ordered by the governor to keep the island safe.

And 36 have been arrested for looting and theft in Humacao, Caguas, San Juan and Bayamón, said Michelle Hernandez, superintendent of the Puerto Rico police.

While Puerto Ricans await more government help, some companies and a Florida college are stepping up.

Telecommunications giant AT&T is bringing floating antennas to help re-connect Puerto Ricans, said Rosselló, the governor.

And Miami Dade College will offer in-state tuition to displaced college students from Puerto Rico, the college said via Twitter.

Rosselló said he hopes the kindness shown by Puerto Rico during Hurricanes Harvey and Irma will be returned.

“The people know that Puerto Ricans are proud US citizens,” he said.

“After Irma, we helped out others — about 4,000 US citizens that were stranded. We gave them shelter and food. During Harvey, we sent out resources to Texas as well. … And now it is time to take a quick decision and help out Puerto Rico as others have done.”

Maria and another storm continue to churn in the Atlantic Ocean but are not expected to threaten the US mainland.

Now a Category 1 hurricane, Maria is 165 miles east of North Carolina and is expected to move northeast and then east out into the Atlantic. Hurricane Lee, a Category 3 storm, is 485 miles east-southeast of Bermuda and will likely move north and northeast. </s> President Donald Trump posted a trio of tweets Monday night that appeared to center on Puerto Rico's fiscal debt, as the devastated U.S. territory struggles to recover from powerful Hurricane Maria.

After commending the recovery of Texas and Florida — which were lashed by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, respectively — Trump tweeted Monday: "Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble."

Trump continued , "It's old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with."

"Food, water and medical are top priorities - and doing well," Trump added.

Hurricane Maria, the strongest storm to hit Puerto Rico since 1928, killed 16 people and left millions without power or communications when it battered the island last week. Beset by food and water shortages, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló issued a statement appealing for help for his "essentially devastated" island.

"My petition is that we were there once for our brothers and sisters, our other U.S. citizens, now it's time that U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico are taken care of adequately, properly," Rosselló wrote Sunday. On Monday, he called for greater federal aid and appealed to Congress to pass a relief package and treat Puerto Rico like any other U.S. state, Politico reports.

According to the Associated Press, 3.4 million U.S. citizens in the territory are without adequate food, water and fuel. Communications are still lacking and electrical power may not be fully restored for a month.

Trump's response, which appeared to put the issue of the island's bank loans before emergency supplies, provoked consternation among some diplomats. "Is the President of the United States saying that the mammoth hurricane damage is Puerto Rico's fault?" posed Samantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

Before the Category 4 storm struck, Puerto Rico was suffering from a $73 million debt crisis , that had left agencies like the state power company broke.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management said aid was getting to the island, and that the agency had more than 700 staff on the ground in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, delivering diesel, food and water to communities, reports AP. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says he’ll visit hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico next Tuesday. Trump announced the visit after the administration came under criticism for its response to the damage on the island that is home to more than 3 million U.S. citizens.

The island has been coping with shortages of food, drinking water, electricity and various forms of communication after Hurricane Maria struck earlier this month.

Trump said Tuesday is the earliest he can visit without disrupting recovery operations.

He says he may also visit the U.S. Virgin Islands. Trump says Puerto Rico is important to him. He says Puerto Ricans are “great people and we need to help them.”
• ‘United for Puerto Rico Tampa Bay’ collecting supplies to send to friends, family
• MacDill stages missions of mercy to save lives in areas devastated by Hurricane Maria
• AT&T creates website to help locate family, friends in Puerto Rico </s> North Carolina's Outer Banks are bracing for the effects of Hurricane Maria, even though the storm is expected to pass the state at least 150 miles offshore.

North Carolina's Outer Banks are bracing for the effects of Hurricane Maria, even though the storm is expected to pass the state at least 150 miles offshore.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci). Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., left, and Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, right, listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with members of the House Ways and Means committee in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump says he'll visit Puerto Rico next Tuesday to survey damage caused by Hurricane Maria.

Trump announced the visit after the administration was criticized for the pace of its response to widespread damage on the Caribbean island that is home to more than 3.4 million U.S. citizens. Puerto Ricans have been coping with shortages of food, drinking water, electricity and various forms of communication ever since the Category 4 storm slammed into island last week.

Trump said Tuesday is the earliest he can visit without disrupting recovery and relief operations.

He pushed back against the notion that the administration wasn't acting quickly enough to help, saying supplies could be delivered by truck to Texas and Florida after recent hurricanes in both states, but that Puerto Rico is unique because of its location.

"The difference is this is an island sitting in the middle of an ocean and it's a big ocean, it's a very big ocean," Trump said Tuesday during a White House meeting with lawmakers about the tax plan he's rolling out this week. "We're doing a good job."

Trump said the administration has shipped "massive amounts" of food, water and other supplies to Puerto Rico.

"We are continuing to do it on an hourly basis but that island was hit as hard as you can hit," he said.

FEMA Director Brock Long and Tom Bossert, Trump's homeland security adviser, were in Puerto Rico on Monday to assess the situation and report back on the island's needs, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

The president was also to be briefed later in the day on the administration's hurricane recovery efforts.

Trump said next week's trip may include a stop in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which were also ravaged by recent hurricanes.

Trump said Puerto Rico is important to him. He noted that he grew up in New York City, which has a large Puerto Rican population, and that he has Puerto Rican friends. "These are great people and we have to help them," he said.

Trump had planned to visit Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands earlier this month, but the trip was delayed after Hurricane Maria formed and became a threat to the region.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> WASHINGTON – Facing the political perils that a natural disaster can bring, President Donald Trump is emphasizing that his team is ready for Hurricane Florence even as he comes under renewed fire from critics who have slammed the response last year to the devastation in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria.

In tweets, statements, and a short video released Wednesday, Trump has praised his team's hurricane preparation – "we're ready, we're able" – and urged residents of the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia to take warnings seriously.

"Bad things can happen when you’re talking about a storm this size," Trump said in the 1-minute, 26-second video he tweeted out Wednesday. "(It's) called Mother Nature; you never know – but we know."

During a White House reception for Congressional Medal of Honor recipients and their families, Trump said: “We’re getting tremendous accolades from politicians and the people. We are ready, but this is going to be one of the biggest ones to ever hit our country."

Trump has also hailed his administration's past response efforts – including Puerto Rico, which he called an "unsung success" in the face of criticism.

Nearly 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Maria, making it the second deadliest hurricane in U.S. history. The toll far exceeded the original estimates, leading to accusations that the Federal Emergency Management Administration did not do its job.

Maria left much of the island without power for months as it destroyed homes and and crippled infrastructure.

On a visit to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the Sept. 20, 2017, storm, Trump tossed paper towels to Puerto Rican residents at a local relief center, angering storm victims and others who saw his actions as insensitive.

Democrats excoriated Trump over his tweet saying that his administration "got A-pluses" for previous hurricane work in Texas and Florida and "did an unappreciated great job" with Puerto Rico.

"The 2017 hurricane season made painfully clear that FEMA has limited capacity to respond to multiple disasters as it is," said Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee.

Thompson and others pointed to a new report that said the Trump administration used nearly $10 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's budget to bolster border efforts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told USA TODAY that, with more hurricanes on the way, "this is just incredibly irresponsible."

Trump administration aides said the money in question was unused administration funds, and that moving them to ICE did not affect FEMA rescue missions.

As Hurricane Florence approaches the United States, Trump has cleared his schedule for the next two days. The president had planned to travel to political rallies in Missouri on Thursday and Mississippi on Friday, but those events were canceled.

The Trump administration is looking to avoid the political fate of predecessors like George W. Bush. Bush took heat over the botched response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as thousands of flooded-out New Orleans residents were stranded without access to food or shelter.

Bush's father saw his re-election prospects in 1992 dim over what critics called a slow response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

It can happen at any level of government.

Back in 1979, political analysts believe Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic lost his re-election bid to Jane Byrne because of the poor way the city handled a major snowstorm.

"Any executive – mayors, governors, presidents – are really judged by how they respond to these natural disasters," said Elaine Kamarck, senior fellow in governance studies with the Brookings Institution. "George Bush had a deep slide after Katrina, and he never really recovered from it."

More: Trump gives himself 'A pluses' on 'hurricane work,' blames Maria on San Juan mayor

More: Trump administration took nearly $10 million from FEMA's budget to support ICE, documents show </s> It took Donald Trump five full days to respond to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria on the lives of 3.5 million Americans in Puerto Rico, and when he finally did so his comments on Twitter were so devoid of empathy it threatened to spark a new controversy.



Hot on the heels of the billowing dispute he single-handedly provoked over African-American sporting figures protesting racial inequality during the national anthem, Trump launched another provocation on Monday night with a belated and lacklustre response to the Puerto Rican disaster. In a series of three tweets he effectively blamed the islanders – all of whom are American citizens – for their own misfortune.

“Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble,” he said, without offering any additional federal government assistance for the stricken US territory, which was hit by Hurricane Maria soon after those two states were struck by Harvey and Irma.

Trump acknowledged that “much of the island was destroyed”, but caustically went on to say that its electrical grid was already “in terrible shape” and that Puerto Rico owed billions of dollars to Wall Street and the banks “which, sadly, must be dealt with”.

It was the first comment Trump has made on Puerto Rico since hours before Maria made landfall as a category four hurricane pummelling the island and destroying its entire power network with winds of up to 155mph (250km/h). On that occasion he told the people of Puerto Rico: “We are with you.”

But for many Puerto Ricans the reality five days after the hurricane struck is that the US president has not been with them. Some 700 Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) staff are on the island, and a total of 10,000 federal workers, carrying out search and rescue missions and supplying basic food and water.

But at the same time Trump himself has spent the past five days mired in his self-made battle with African-American sports stars while seemingly oblivious to the plight of millions of Hispanic Americans in peril in a natural disaster zone. The Trump administration has also refused to waive federal restrictions on foreign ships carrying life-saving supplies to Puerto Rico – a concession it readily made for Texas and Florida in the cases of hurricanes Harvey and Irma respectively.

In the last of his three tweets, Trump said that “food, water and medical are top priorities – and doing well”. But that may not tally with experiences on the ground where the governor, Ricardo Rosselló, has warned that Puerto Rico is on the brink of a “humanitarian crisis”.

In the hard-to-reach interior of the country, thousands of people are struggling with destroyed houses, a heat wave, and rapidly depleting supplies of clean water and food.

Earlier on Monday, Rosselló made a point of thanking former US president George H Bush and former Texas governor Jeb Bush for their calls of support.

Most Puerto Ricans were spared the experience of reading Trump’s tweets as a result of the ongoing total blackout of the island. But condemnation was swift in mainland US.

Juliette Kayyem, a former senior official in the department of homeland security under President Obama, said that Trump’s response to the Puerto Rico disaster showed “a lack of empathy of epic proportions”.
U.S. President Donald Trump waives the Jones Act for Puerto Rico after he first disallowed additional aid, citing shipping industry business interests. Senator John McCain says the Jones Act makes prices for food, water, and other emergency supplies too high in Puerto Rico.