Trump and White House spokesman Hogan Gidley let Americans know exactly how they truly feel about Puerto Rico by calling them "that country" when their people are American citizens and the island is a U.S. territory.
Hogan Gidley made an appearance on Hallie Jackson's show to spin a host of topics including Trump's twitter rage against the hurricane-devastated island.
"With all they’ve done in that country, they’ve had a systematic mismanagement of the goods and services we’ve sent to them,” Gidley claimed falsely.
This is how they view our own territory. Freud would have had a field day with this interview.
Like Trump, Gidley proclaimed that Puerto Rico has already received 91 billion dollars in aid, the most in US history, but they are wasting and mismanaging the funds.
However, John Wagner explains, it's a "figure that actually reflects a high-end, long-term estimate for recovery costs. Only a fraction of that has so far been budgeted, and even less has been spent."
The Trump administration can't even honestly tell the American people what the real costs and allocations are. There is no reason to lie. None.
When Hallie called him on it, he became indignant, as liars do.
"100 percent," he exclaimed.
Hallie would not let him filibuster and repeatedly reminded him, "These are things that are not true."
Only about 11 billion dollars has been spent so far and the 91 billion, if they ever receive it, would fall far short of Hurricane Katrina's cost of 120 billion.
Trump's twitter rages read as if he believes Puerto Rico is a different country from the U.S.
Jackson then confronted him outright. "The president says Puerto Ricans are taking from the USA. Puerto Rico is part of the United States. People who live in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens."
"You're rolling your eyes and I don't know why you're rolling your eyes because there's a lot of confusion over why the president would say this and what he understands and how he views the people of Puerto Rico," she chided.
Gidley defended Trump by saying Donald visited the island and gave them money.
Yea, it wasn't a presidential moment.
