WASHINGTON (AP) – Americans are more likely to approve than disapprove of how President Donald Trump is handling hurricane relief in Florida and Texas, but it’s a different story when it comes to Puerto Rico.
According to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 48 percent of Americans approve and just 27 percent disapprove of how Trump is handling the recoveries in U.S. states including Texas and Florida that were hit by hurricanes Harvey and Irma. But just 32 percent approve of how Trump is handling disaster relief in Puerto Rico, while 49 percent disapprove.
“It took him how long to get to Puerto Rico?” said Bree Harris, a 25-year-old chef and Democrat from Los Angeles. She suspects Trump “didn’t even know that Puerto Rico was an island that was part of America. It’s embarrassing.”
The poll was conducted before Trump on Tuesday made his first trip to the U.S. territory 1,000 miles from the mainland after Hurricane Maria roared ashore Sept. 20 and knocked out all power. The federal response has drawn criticism and the administration has aggressively pushed back.
After lavishing attention and time on Texas and Florida, Trump tweeted his wish for Puerto Ricans to “be careful” just before the storm hit, but then didn’t talk publicly about the island’s post-hurricane struggles for days as he chose instead to fight with the NFL over some of its players kneeling for the National Anthem. Critics said the president had failed to grasp the magnitude of Maria’s destruction as quickly as he had the twin wallops of Harvey and Irma.