Trump refuses to grant statehood to Puerto Rico because of his feud with San Juan's female mayor

Donald Trump is still waging war on Puerto Rico. The one year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, one of the deadliest disasters in American history, came and went on September 20 with not so much as a peep from Trump—who was busy holding a MAGA rally for himself in Las Vegas. Of course, no one would expect anything less, given that the racist-in-chief spent the previous weeks lying about the “fantastic job” he did responding to Maria and arguing that the death toll was made up by Democrats and hadn’t really reached 3,000. 

This week, Trump doubled down on the recovering island and said that there would be absolutely no statehood for Puerto Rico as long as San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz is in office. As The Washington Post reports, Trump made these statements during a radio interview with Geraldo Rivera which aired Monday on Trump’s favorite MAGA channel, Fox News. 

“With the mayor of San Juan as bad as she is and as incompetent as she is, Puerto Rico shouldn’t be talking about statehood until they get some people that really know what they’re doing.”

Statehood is a contentious issue for Puerto Ricans. In the past, the federal government’s position has reluctantly been that it will formally make Puerto Rico a state if the territory’s residents support it. But, for years, there has been division between Puerto Ricans who support statehood, those who want to remain a commonwealth and a minority of people who want total independence. The last time the question was put to Puerto Rican voters was in June 2017. At that time, an overwhelming majority (97 percent) of those people who voted supported statehood. But less than 25 percent of registered voters actually showed up to the polls—which left many questions about the legitimacy of the vote. 

Now, it’s not up to Trump alone to grant statehood to Puerto Rico. Congress would ultimately have to approve that. But Trump’s refusal to agree to statehood puts him at odds with the island’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló. Rosselló wrote a letter to Trump prior to the anniversary of Maria to request that Trump allow Puerto Rico to become America’s 51st state. Because Trump is petty, a liar, and an opportunist, he couldn’t resist throwing Puerto Rico under the bus during his interview with Geraldo. Besides naming Mayor Yulín Cruz as the problem, Trump also said, “Puerto Rico should not be thinking about statehood right now.”