BUDGET/NATURAL DISASTERS/PUERTO RICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump criticized Puerto Rico’s government on Tuesday over federal aid directed to the island territory, pushing an inaccurate figure for the cost of hurricane recovery effort and ripping local leaders as ‘grossly incompetent’ and corrupt. In a string of tweets late Monday night and Tuesday morning, Trump falsely claimed that ‘Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before.’ According to The Washington Post, that amount is likely the sum of $41 billion in approved aid and a $50 billion estimate of recovery costs over as much as the next 20 years. Even less than the appropriated $41 billion has actually been spent on the island thus far, the Post reported…White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley doubled down on Trump’s false claim, telling MSNBC that the island has ‘received more money than any state or territory in history for a rebuild.’ He insisted that the president’s $91 billion figure was accurate because it is the amount of money pledged to the island. Gidley said he is unsure when the White House will disperse the rest of the already appropriated aid to Puerto Rico and does not have a timeline for that.”
–Caitlin Oprysko, “Trump accuses ‘grossly incompetent’ Puerto Rican politicians of misusing federal hurricane aid,” Politico, April 2, 2019 11:19 am