Crowd Goes Wild as Trump Breaks Out Chart and Shatters Dem Narrative
President Donald Trump completely shattered the left’s narrative about Puerto Rico disaster relief funding with a single chart.
Trump held a rally in Panama City Beach, Florida, on Wednesday and disaster relief funding was a hot topic.
Florida is still awaiting disaster relief funding from Congress after Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 hurricane, struck Florida’s Panhandle in October.
Democrats have stalled disaster relief bills to Florida and other states for months because they want the bills to include more money for Puerto Rico, which was hit by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Republicans correctly insist that Puerto Rico has received adequate funding, and Trump says the territory has received more money for disaster relief funding than any other state or territory in U.S. history.
And Puerto Rico failed to handle the federal government’s aid properly as corruption scandals plagued the territory’s government.
Despite the holdup in Congress, the federal government has been able to help Florida and other affected areas through FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“We are building a lot of things. We’re doing a lot of things that includes additional Hurricane Michael relief funding immediately,” Trump said Wednesday.
“The money is coming immediately, no games, no gimmicks, no delays — we’re just doing it, we’re just doing it.”
Trump also pointed out that Puerto Rico has received plenty of aid through government agencies like FEMA.
“By the way, FEMA, my people at FEMA, FEMA did a tremendous job here and elsewhere by the way,” Trump said.
“They had this, they had Texas, they had Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico got $91 billion. I understand they don’t like me. It’s the most money we’ve given to anybody.”
Trump even pulled out a chart to illustrate his point, and the Florida crowd roared.
That’s Puerto Rico, they don’t like me, Trump says, pointing to the biggest bar on a graph of hurricane recovery spending – says that he has already spent $91 billion on the island’s recovery pic.twitter.com/VkMWSBb5vz
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) May 9, 2019
“We’ve never given $91 billion to a state. We gave it to Puerto Rico — $91 billion,” he continued.
“In fact, I brought a chart. Would you like to see a chart? Very haphazardly, I just happen to have it with me.”
“That’s Puerto Rico. They don’t like me. Texas, Florida, the biggest hurricanes we’ve ever seen. Texas, Florida. But this? And what the Democrats want to do, they want to give more and more and I say, ‘You know what? I have a great relationship with the people of Puerto Rico but it hasn’t been fair.'”
Democrats continue to use Puerto Rico’s disaster as a way to attack Trump and stall legislation, but the fact is that Puerto Rico has already received a great deal of aid.
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