BUDGET/NATURAL DISASTERS/PUERTO RICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump on Tuesday [4-2-19] lashed out at Puerto Rico’s local lawmakers as ‘grossly incompetent’ and singled out one of his favorite targets, Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, as ‘crazed and incompetent.’ Mr. Trump’s latest invective toward the local leaders of an island devastated by a hurricane in September 2017 came in a torrent of tweets, which began on Monday night and spilled into Tuesday morning. Mr. Trump was reacting after the Senate on Monday blocked billions of dollars in disaster aid for Midwestern states, in part because Democrats said a proposed $600 million in nutritional assistance to Puerto Rico fell short of its needs. ‘Puerto Rico got far more money than Texas & Florida combined, yet their government can’t do anything right, the place is a mess — nothing works,’ Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. He also stated, incorrectly, that Puerto Rico had received $91 billion in aid from the federal government. In fact, FEMA and other agencies have so far distributed $11.2 billion in aid to Puerto Rico, according to the Office of Management and Budget.”
–Annie Karni and Patricia Mazzei, “Trump Lashes Out Again at Puerto Rico, Bewildering the Island,” The New York Times online, April 2, 2019