President Donald Trump welcomed Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to the White House on Monday, where he used the foreign head of state’s visit to complain about Puerto Rico’s elected officials and boast that he himself was “the best thing to ever happen” to the island territory.
Trump called Gov. Ricardo Rosselló—currently facing massive calls for his resignation for both corruption and a series of leaked texts featuring offensive slurs and jokes—“terrible,” and again attacked San Juan Mayor Carmin Yulín Cruz as a “horror show” while repeating the lie that the government had given more than $90 billion to Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Then things got even weirder, with the president insisting he was a jobs creator for the island, since he’d hosted the Miss Universe contest there.
They said, literally, 100 percent—this never happens—I think it was close to 100...100 percent of the island itself was watching. They like those pageants. Now I’ve had a great relationship with Puerto Rico.
I’m sure the people of Puerto Rico can look back at those beauty contests, and take comfort in the fact that their months without clean water or electricity or really any large-scale governmental assistance whatsoever was just a small part of Trump’s abounding love and generosity for their home island.