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President Trump makes a gesture when he arrives in Springfield, Missouri, for a campaign rally last week. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)
John Wagner
National Journalist Leading the Post's New Politics Team
President Trump said Monday in an interview on the radio that he was an "absolute no" to the constitution of a state for Puerto Rico, citing his rivalry with the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, criticism of the response Federal to Hurricane Maria.
"With the mayor of San Juan as bad as she is and as incompetent as she is, Puerto Rico should not talk about the state before having people who really know what it is." They do, "Trump told his host, Geraldo Rivera. Sunday's interview with WTAM radio in Cleveland, later calling Cruz a "horror show".
Trump's assessment provoked a reprimand from Ricardo Rosselló, the Commonwealth governor, who redoubled his efforts to persuade Trump and Congress to support the state after the first anniversary of the storm. .
[Puerto Rico’s governor ramps up push for statehood on anniversary of Maria]
"It's an insensitive and disrespectful comment to more than 3 million Americans living on the American territory of Puerto Rico," Rosselló said in a statement in which he also lamented "unequal relations and colonies between the United States and Puerto Rico ".
Following Maria, Cruz made repeated public calls for more immediate help from the federal government, which angered Trump.
[Trump creates political storm with false claim on Puerto Rico hurricane death toll]
Both continued to argue.
Earlier this month, when Trump called Maria's federal response to "incredible and unrecognized success," Cruz Cruz responded by writing, "When he thinks of the deaths of 3,000 people [is] a success that God is helping us all.
Speaking of Cruz Monday, Trump said that "with people like that involved in Puerto Rico, I would be an absolute no" about statehood.
"If you had people like the mayor of San Juan, whatever his name is, it's a horror show," Trump said. "She was so mean and disrespectful to our military, our first responders and our wonderful FEMA members who did a phenomenal job," he added, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In a letter to Trump and in television interviews last week, Rosselló argued that disparate federal responses in Puerto Rico and other hurricane-affected states underscore the need to change the status of US territory.
Puerto Ricans can vote in the presidential primaries, but not in general elections.
The Puerto Rican non-voting representative in the House, Jenniffer González-Colón (R), introduced a bill in June that would make the territory a state with full voting rights by January 2021 at the latest.
Last year, in a referendum, 97% of Puerto Rican voters who voted chose a state, but only 23% of registered voters cast ballots. The vote was considered flawed and the opposition parties boycotted it.
It was the fifth referendum held on a state since Puerto Rico was acquired during the Spanish-American War of 1898 and had designated a Commonwealth half a century later.
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