Following a disagreement with San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz that seemingly turned into a full-blown political feud over the weekend, Politico is now reporting that the Trump administration will seek an incremental $10-$15 billion in disaster relief funding to help with recovery efforts in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.
The Trump administration will ask Congress to approve another between $10 billion and $15 billion for the FEMA disaster relief fund this week, according to sources with knowledge of the request. We hear the magic number will be $13 billion. This is meant to begin to cover the cost of the spate of recent natural disasters, including the storm in Puerto Rico.
For those who may have missed the chaos, Trump"s feud with Cruz escalated on Friday after the mayor took to the airwaves to make an emotional plea for help...a plea that was interpreted by the Trump administration to be nothing more than a cleverly planned political stunt to exploit the ongoing crisis in Puerto Rico. Per Politico:
It was a direct response to her emotional news conference Friday night, in which she begged the president for more help. “We are dying here,” Cruz said, slamming down two thick binders of documentation that San Juan had provided to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to obtain help.
In another world, Cruz’s frustration with the layers of bureaucracy standing between her wiped-out city and food and water delivery might have been in line with Trump’s own interest in cutting regulations and red tape.
The props she used were similar to charts Trump has wielded at news conferences to demonstrate how obtuse the country’s permitting and regulatory process can be. But Cruz’s plea was interpreted by Trump as a personal insult.
“I am asking the president of the United States to make sure somebody is in charge, that is up to the task of saving lives,” she said. “If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency.”
Meanwhile, and to absolutely no one"s surprise, the Mayor"s comments drew a very quick response from the President in the form of an aggressive tweetstorm in which he attributed the disappointing Puerto Rico relief effort to the "poor leadership ability" of Cruz.
The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
...Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
...want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
Of course, regardless of whether Cruz"s intentions were genuine or just an effort to score political points for an upcoming bid for the governor"s seat, Trump"s assault has helped her accomplish both with the mainstream media now fully behind her.
In fact, as we pointed out just last night, Former Puerto Rico Attorney General Jose Fuentes became the latest victim of CNN"s "technical difficulties" when he went on air to make the point that Cruz"s attacks were politically motivated.
Donald Trump"s feud with San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz got an unexpected reinforcement today, when Former Puerto Rico Attorney General Jose Fuentes, a Republican, on Sunday took aim at Cruz, accusing her of attacking President Trump and using hurricane relief efforts to lay the groundwork for a gubernatorial bid.
Speaking on CNN"s "New Day", Fuentes accused Cruz of making an about-face, saying she supported Trump just a few days ago, until her political adviser suggested the idea of running for governor.
"The mayor of San Juan is a political hack," Fuentes said. "She was singing the praises of the president until her political adviser, [Rep.] Luis Gutiérrez from Chicago, got there and brought her the t-shirts and said, "Hey you want to run for governor, if she wants to run..." at which point the CNN anchor cut him off, pointing to audio issues, and claiming he could no longer hear Fuentes, handing over the mic to CNN"s Democratic Political Commentator Maria Cardona, who unleashed a scathing critique before somehow audio returned at which point Fuentes was once again given the platform, when he again repeated that any logistical problems were the result of political posturing by the San Juan mayor at which point both the CNN anchor and and Cardona doubled down their attack, and so on.
Watch CNN"s anchor shut down Fuentes 2 mins 38 seconds into the clip below.
Meanwhile, with President Trump scheduled to travel to Puerto Rico tomorrow, we"re sure this fireworks show is far from over.
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