[American Thinker] Democrats have cynically dined out for years on the false narrative that President Trump was always trying to hold down Puerto Rico. Taking a page from the number they did on President Bush in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, they claimed that the U.S. territory, ravaged as it was by Hurricane Maria in 2017, was intentionally not getting the aid it needed, all because Trump was a racist who hated them. Remember this dreck from Democratic Party standard-bearer, Hillary Clinton, who said she wasn't sure President Trump actually knew that Puerto Ricans are citizens? This is an actual narrative from Democrats.com themselves, and it snapped into place the moment the hurricane touched down in 2017.
It can't be emphasized too much how Democrats have tried to push this narrative. Remember this? The big Democrat shindig that took place in Puerto Rico to highlight Trump's supposed badness about helping the island ‐ which happened at a time when the government was in a shutdown?
SAN JUAN, P.R. ‐ It had been planned for months: the largest-ever congressional delegation to Puerto Rico. It would start with briefings on the continuing effects of Hurricane Maria, end with a charity performance of "Hamilton" and include a little down time on the beach.
And then the government shut down.
As they returned to Washington for Monday night votes, the 39 members of Congress who traveled to Puerto Rico over the weekend were taking fire from Fox News, President Trump's communications team and the president himself.
The White House seized on the idea of Democrats "partying on the beach instead of negotiating," as polls have found most voters blaming Trump for the 24-day impasse over funding the federal government, the longest shutdown in history.
Trump tried to highlight that the local Puerto Rican government, loaded as it was with Trump-hating leftists, was the reason the aid wasn't getting through. Trump sent aid swiftly and was angry that it sat on the docks as Puerto Rican leftist pols postured for the press. Remember how San Juan's leftist mayor cried all those crocodile tears against Trump as the press fawned and Democrats claimed her as their own? Yet Trump said the aid was there, and it generally just went to waste, all because Puerto Rican officials ‐ with weird ties to the Clinton machine, by the way ‐ couldn't lay off the corruption for just a few weeks.