Trump scoffs at Puerto Rico ‘ingrates’, dedicates golf trophy to hurricane victims

US President Donald Trump on Sunday scoffed at “politically motivated ingrates” who had questioned his administration’s commitment to rebuilding Puerto Rico after a pulverising hurricane and said the federal government had done “a great job with the almost impossible situation.”

Trump’s latest tweets sought to defend Washington’s attentiveness to recovery efforts on a US territory in dire straits almost two weeks after Hurricane Maria struck. The president spent Saturday at his New Jersey golf club and on Sunday attended an international golf competition near New York City.

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz on Friday accused the Trump administration of “killing us with the inefficiency” after the storm. She begged the president, who is set to visit Puerto Rico on Tuesday, to “make sure somebody is in charge that is up to the task of saving lives,” and appealed for help “to save us from dying.”

Cruz said Sunday that “there’s only one goal, and it’s saving lives,” adding that all she did “was ask for help.”

“I know the good heart of the American people and I know that when a mayday sound goes off, they come to the rescue,” she said in a television interview.