WASHINGTON, Oct 20: President Donald Trump has given his administration ten-out-of-ten for its response to a hurricane that hammered Puerto Rico exactly one month ago, as 80 per cent of the US island remained without power.
Meeting Governor Ricardo Rossello in the Oval Office, Trump acknowledged the massive scale of the rebuilding effort, but defended his administration’s response.
“We have provided so much, so fast, we were actually there before the storm hit,” Trump said. “They got hit dead center.”
Asked how he would rank the administration’s response out of ten, Trump responded “I give ourselves a ten.”
“We have done a really great job.”
Rosello said that Trump had met all of his requests, but he said that much more needed to be done to avoid a humanitarian disaster.
Trump had previously raised concerns on the island by warning that federal aid for Puerto Rico will not be open- ended.
But he indicated Thursday that a mixture of grants and loans could be found to rebuild, in particular, the electricity grid, which was in poor shape before the storm.
Trump also rowed back on some comments that appeared to blame Puerto Ricans for their plight.
“It’s not the people’s fault, they lost their house, they were devastated.”
“A person loses his or her house and then they can’t go to work. If you lose your house, you know, it’s hard to go and be a policeman, you are trying to have your family live.” (AGENCIES)
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