President Trump blasts San Juan mayor on Twitter for criticising US disaster response to Hurricane Maria

President Donald Trump, under mounting criticism for the federal response to hurricane-damaged Puerto Rico, shifted from defending his administration’s approach to lashing out at the San Juan mayor for her “poor leadership ability”.

The president, in a series of tweets on Saturday morning, said Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, “who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump”.

“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,” Trump wrote. “They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.”

Trump went on to say that there are “10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job” and an “amazing job”.

Trump a day earlier defended his administration’s response to the crisis in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria amid rising criticism on the island and in Congress that more resources are needed to help residents cope with life-threatening conditions.

Cruz blasted acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke for telling reporters at the White House that the relief efforts were “a good-news story in terms of our ability to reach people and the limited number of deaths that have taken place”.

In an interview on CNN, Cruz called Duke’s remarks “irresponsible”.