President Donald Trump in Puerto Rico at a briefing on Hurricane Maria relief efforts (Screenshot of White House video)

(CNSNews.com) - During his visit Tuesday to the hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump thanked Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossello for not playing politics about the recovery efforts.



“Your governor has been -- who I didn’t know. I heard very good things about him. He's not even from my party, and he started right at the beginning appreciating what we did, and he was tremendously supportive, and he knew the level of problem that you had at the beginning, before, and the level -- what happened with respect to the tremendous storms that hit your beautiful island,” Trump said.





“And, Governor, I just want to tell you that, right from the beginning, this governor did not play politics. He didn’t play it at all He was saying it like it was, and he was giving us the highest grades. And I want to -- on behalf of our country, I want to thank you,” the president said.



Trump had accused San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz of playing politics after she held a press conference, asking for federal help and calling on the president to send someone who is “up to the task of saving lives.”z“If anybody out there is listening, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency,” she said.



Trump lashed out at Cruz Saturday on Twitter, saying: “The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.”



“Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help.They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job," he added.