In a desperate effort to pander to voters in Florida, many of whom are Puerto Ricans who were displaced by Hurricane Maria back in 2017, President Donald Trump has grudgingly agreed to send billions of dollars of disaster relief funds to the territory.
Puerto Ricans are American citizens who for some reason are not allowed to vote in U.S. elections, but thousands were forced to flee to Florida in the aftermath of the hurricane that devastated the island and killed at least 3,000 people. So, a change of residence now allows them to vote, which could tip the election and give the state to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Losing Florida would be a devastating blow to Trump, who has frequently attacked and disparaged Puerto Rico since the disaster struck, even denying that 3,000 people were killed.
3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2018
Trump has also accused Puerto Rico of being “corrupt” and has repeatedly refused to send disaster relief funds to the island.
Again, these are American citizens Trump is attacking. And now they have the chance to retaliate via the vote. So, Trump is pandering to them now.
Scoop: Tomorrow, the White House will announce several major disaster aid packages for Puerto Rico, amounting to the largest allotment of disaster aid in U.S. history. Most of the money will be used to rebuild the power grid that was destroyed by Hurricane Maria, 3yrs ago today.
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) September 18, 2020
The election is just weeks away, so it’s pretty clear that Trump is doing this for political reasons and not out of the goodness of his heart. Polls consistently show Biden leading the race in Florida. If Trump loses the state, he likely would lose re-election.
It’s not the first time Trump has pandered for votes in Florida lately. He recently invented the fake “Bay of Pigs Award” in an effort to pander to Cuban-Americans.
But Puerto Ricans are not just going to forget how badly Trump has treated their island because he finally throws money their way. He could have helped the island years ago, but he refused. In fact, no American should forget how Trump has treated Puerto Rico. After all, Trump has treated the mainland United States just as bad since he has allowed nearly 200,000 Americans to die of coronavirus and has ignored the apocalyptic wildfires in the western part of the nation.
He should not only lose Florida, but every state in the country.
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