Why doesn't Donald Trump care about Puerto Ricans? Because they can't vote for him

If one thing has become painfully clear over the past eight months, from his inaugural speech to his comments following Charlottesville, Trump intends to be President only for those who voted for him

Hurricane Maria wreaked devastation on Puerto Rico, leaving millions without access to basic necessities (AFP/Getty)

President Donald Trump’s response to Hurricane Maria, which ravaged Puerto Rico last month and has left most of the island without electricity or drinking water, has been slow and disinterested – at best.

As the island suffered and begged for help (literally: Carmen Yulín Cruz, the Mayor of San Juan, went on national TV to beg for assistance while wearing a shirt that read: “Help us, we are dying”), Trump picked a fight with the NFL over the national anthem and held a campaign rally in Alabama.

To understand why Trump, and the rest of America, seem uninterested (at best) in the welfare of the island, one must first understand Puerto Rico’s unique political status and the President’s raging prejudice.

Puerto Rico lacks a voting member in the House of Representatives (they have a non-voting delegate), has no representation in the US Senate, and – as mentioned above – cannot vote for President. It is a US territory, not a state, and therefore not in the forefront of many Americans’ minds. Its Caribbean culture and Spanish language can feel foreign to its fellow citizens on the mainland.

But Puerto Rico isn’t foreign, it’s American – and has been for over a century, since it was ceded from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War. The indifference being paid by this administration exposes just how precarious Puerto Rico’s position in the American empire has been, and opens up urgent conversations about what can and should be done to rectify it. Because right now, America looks like an indifferent colonial power who can’t be bothered to expend resources to help its colonised peoples.

More immediately, though, we need to be talking about relief. When Trump did mention Puerto Rico publicly, it was to praise the federal response to the disaster – in direct contradiction to the reports of those on the ground – or to pick a fight with Cruz, who has been extremely critical of the President’s response to the hurricane. Trump shot back by claiming Puerto Ricans “want everything done for them” and pointed to the commonwealth’s debt crisis as an excuse, without offering any evidence as to why that is a factor – because there is none.

The federal government, on Trump’s orders, went into Texas and Florida following recent hurricanes and devastating flooding, bringing the full force of the US government with them on their rescue and recovery missions. Trump himself visited Texas twice following the storm. And while yes, Puerto Rico is an island in the middle of the Caribbean Sea (as Trump pointed out as though this were brand new information), it’s not exactly the South Pole. We know that the federal government can mobilise quickly and efficiently following a disaster, so none of this is an excuse for why they haven’t in Puerto Rico.

Texas and Florida are both states Trump won in the election, while Puerto Rico can’t vote in presidential elections. If one thing has become painfully clear over the past eight months, from his inaugural speech to his comments following Charlottesville, Trump intends to be President only for those who voted for him.

The vast majority of those people are white. Texas and Florida both have heavy Latino populations; Puerto Rico is predominantly Latino and Black and almost entirely Spanish-speaking. Given Trump’s views on race, and Latinos in particular, it’s easy to see why the President didn’t give a damn a moment before he politically had to: he simply doesn’t care.

But he needs to. As of Saturday night, about half the island lacked portable water and experts were warning it could be six months before the electric grid was up and running. The Army Corps of Engineers said Puerto Rico looked a lot like Iraq following America’s 2003 invasion.

Watching all of this unfold has been horrifying for the millions of Puerto Ricans on the mainland, many of whom can’t contact family back home and have no way of knowing if they are safe. It has been pure hell for the millions of Puerto Ricans on the island who are struggling to survive. And it has been shameful to the rest of us who look at our fellow citizens suffering and a President indifferent, at best, to their plight.

These people are Americans, and it is America’s responsibility to step up and help them. What is happening now is an unacceptable dereliction of duty to our fellow citizens. It’s time for the President to put politics aside, face the challenge at hand, and do his sodding job.