After facing harsh criticism of his administration by a Puerto Rican Mayor and other American lawmakers, Donald Trump attracted flak from actor Lin-Manuel Miranda who said the US President was “going straight to hell”.
Trump’s comments were not received well by the American composer, lyricist, playwright and actor, who has been active in his efforts to try to help the hurricane-ravaged island, CNN reported.
“You’re going straight to hell, @realDonald Trump. No long lines for you. Someone will say, ‘Right this way, sir.’ They’ll clear a path,” tweeted Miranda, who is of Puerto Rican descent.
“She has been working 24/7. You have been GOLFING. You’re going straight to hell. Fastest golf cart you ever took,” Miranda added in a follow-up tweet
“Did you tweet this one from the first hole, 18th hole, or the club? Anyway, it’s a lie. You’re a congenital liar,” he wrote in response to a third tweet from Trump, adding a link to a donation site for a Latino non-profit.
His comments came after the US President accused San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz and other Puerto Rican authorities of showing poor leadership in the wake of devastating Hurricane Maria that hit the US territory two weeks ago, CNN reported.
“The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump,” the President tweeted on Saturday.
“Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.”
Trump said that 10,000 Federal workers now on Island were doing a fantastic job.
He made his remarks after Cruz on Friday night harshly criticised acting US Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, who on Thursday hailed the efforts of federal authorities to resolve the humanitarian crisis as “really a good-news story”.
“It is not a good-news story when people are dying, when they don’t have dialysis, when their generators aren’t working and their oxygen isn’t providing for them. Where is there good news here?” Cruz asked.
Trump was already under fire from some US lawmakers, who accused him of not giving sufficient importance to the situation and responding too slowly to the crisis in Puerto Rico, where the electrical infrastructure was totally destroyed and the people are having to wait in extremely long lines for food, fuel, water and cash.
Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence defended the President’s remarks in an interview.
“Well, it is frustrating, I expect, to millions of Americans to hear rhetoric coming out from some in Puerto Rico, particularly the mayor of San Juan, instead of focusing on results,” Pence said.
Pence said he learned that “while our joint field operation at the convention center in San Juan has more than 1,000 personnel working out in a football field environment, the Mayor of San Juan has only visited our joint field operation once”.
He added that he would encourage Cruz to come alongside Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello and other officials “who are focusing on continuing to make the steady progress that we are making in Puerto Rico”.