Barrow Journal

To all Puerto Ricans, to all people living in the United States with family members in Puerto Rico, I have to offer my sincerest apologies.
You’re not going to get that from the deluded man living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but I and millions of others understand the destructive toll Hurricane Maria took on your island last year.
President Donald Trump does not. He’s a malignant narcissist who is apparently incapable of empathy. As Hurricane Florence moved toward the Carolinas last week, Trump was oddly preoccupied with patting himself on the back for the job he and his administration did with handling Maria, which led directly or indirectly to nearly 3,000 deaths on the island, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at George Washington University.
But much like a Nazi would deny the Holocaust, much like a conspiracy theorist like Alex Jones would deny a massacre of schoolchildren, Trump doesn’t believe the bulk of these deaths occurred and that the research is a partisan attack on him.
Here’s a Tweet from him last Thursday: “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…
“…This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the lost. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!”
There’s always a tweet and there’s always a “plot.” What’s really astounding is this man woke up on a morning when landfall for a storm — certain to lead to deaths, destroy homes and severely damage communities — was imminent and this was one of the first things he thought about and felt he needed to share with the world. To use a phrase of his, “what a disgrace.”
Often times, it’s the aftermath of these powerful storms that is worse than when the actual storms are hitting. Donald Trump cannot stop a hurricane from occurring. No president or government official before him has been able to stop one. The severity of these storms and their impact has increased in recent decades due to warmer waters and rising sea levels resulting from climate change, but our leaders in the U.S. and around the world have made futile attempts to address the issue in any way — largely a result of financial greed, political paranoia and selfish non-urgency. We aren’t going to be around in 100-200 years, so screw it. So, if we aren’t going to try to curb increasingly violent and deadly storms, we have to make sure we have competent government agencies that can provide adequate disaster preparation measures and rescue and relief efforts.
Maria was a major Category 5 hurricane, one of the 10 most powerful ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. It was going to kill people and cripple infrastructure in the U.S. territory. The governor of Puerto Rico has raised the official death toll from 64 to 2,975 as a result of the George Washington University study, which accounted for those who died from heat-related and other after-effects of Maria. Most of the island was without power for weeks.
There was a government failure at the local, state and federal levels. People in Trump’s own administration even publicly admitted to shortcomings. According to reporting from CNN, earlier this month, a report from the Government Accountability Office “revealed FEMA had been so overwhelmed with storms by the time Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico that more than half of the workers it was deploying to disasters were known to be unqualified for the jobs they were doing in the field.”
People and agencies make mistakes, but it matters how leaders respond in times of emergency. Leaders in Puerto Rico have acknowledged their shortcomings, while Trump has characterized his response as “an incredible, unsung success.”
The response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was botched at all levels but was especially a terrible moment for the Bush administration. But I never remember George W. Bush questioning the death toll or making himself out to be a victim of a Democratic plot.
As Norm Eisen, a former U.S. ambassador under the Obama administration, put it: “The Talmud says that when you save a single life, it is like saving an entire world. Trump just erased 2,982 worlds.”
It’s not for me to decide whether he is capable of redemption, but what in the world is wrong with this man where he has to make everything be about himself? Any other politician who was so debased, who would say such awful and ugly things, would have to go — resign or be removed.
“The fact that the president will not take responsibility for his administration’s failures and will not even recognize that thousands have perished shows us, once again, that he is not fit to serve as our president,” said Congressman Bennie Thompson, ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, adding Trump should “resign at once.”
That would be the honorable thing, Congressman, but you might as well be talking to a brick wall because there’s nothing honorable about the man or the once proud and noble Republican Party whose leaders have virtually sold their souls to him. Sure, there were plenty who denounced his conspiracy tweet, but only passively.
“Casualties don’t make a person look bad, so I have no reason to dispute those numbers,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said. “It was devastating. It was a horrible storm. I toured the entire island. It’s an isolated island that lost its infrastructure and power for a long time, you couldn’t get to people for a long time. I have no reason to dispute those numbers. Those are just the facts of what happened.”
Way to go out on a limb, Mr. Speaker. Make sure you don’t upset the apple cart as you near retirement.
“I disagree with @POTUS -- an independent study said thousands were lost and Gov. Rosselló agreed. I’ve been to Puerto Rico 7 times & saw devastation firsthand. The loss of any life is tragic; the extent of lives lost as a result of Maria is heart wrenching. I’ll continue to help PR,” Florida governor and Senate candidate Rick Scott tweeted.
That’s nice, Governor. Hope you don’t lose out on your party’s support in that competitive race.
And so, Puerto Ricans, I’m sorry.
I’m sorry that this miserable, pathetic man so boldly disrespected those of you who lost loved ones and made himself a victim of your pain.
I’m sorry that so many of our elected officials lack the courage and conviction to stand up loudly against his rhetoric, his blatant disregard for facts or his inability to show the most basic kind of decency.
I’m sorry that you don’t have the ability to vote for something immensely better.
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Scott Thompson is editor of the Barrow News-Journal. He can be reached at sthompson@barrownewsjournal.com.