Donald Trump, the self-declared savior of Puerto Rico, has taken virtually every opportunity to screw over the recovering U.S. territory. He has consistently resisted sending proportionate emergency funding to the island following 2017’s devastating Hurricane Maria, and can’t stop complaining about the aid he has provided. “Cannot continue to hurt our Farmers and States with these massive payments,” the president tweeted earlier this year, “and so little appreciation!”

Trump took aim at the island again this week, personally intervening in budget talks to cut Medicaid funding to Puerto Rico by half, Politico reported Tuesday. Democrats and Republicans had agreed to provide the territory with $12 billion over four years as it sought a more long-term funding option. But the president inserted himself into the talks over the weekend, suggesting the amount was too much. Rather than $12 billion over four years, the budget deal now allocates $5.7 billion over two—something the White House framed as a “win.” “With the historical waste we have faced in Puerto Rico,” Office of Management and Budget Spokesperson Chase Jennings told the outlet, “additional funding was not needed or fiscally responsible.”

That Puerto Rico has endured corruption and mismanagement is not in dispute; its citizens rose up over the summer to demand the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and other leaders they say had failed to represent them. Some leaders on the island told the outlet they were “pleased” about the funding, even as they worked toward a longer-term deal. “We will continue to work hand-in-hand with the federal government to achieve a longer-term funding mechanism that provides stable healthcare to the people of Puerto Rico,” Jennifer Storipan, executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, the primary liaison between island officials and the federal government, told Politico.

In the context of Trump’s comments about the territory, however, his intervention takes on a different significance. His administration has come under intense scrutiny, including from leaders on the island, for its mishandling of the natural disaster, even as Trump has insisted it did an “unappreciated great job.” In Maria’s aftermath, he suggested the death toll was artificially inflated by his political opponents “in order to make me look as bad as possible.” In January, he railed against the island for supposedly using disaster relief funding to pay off its debt—something it was not, in fact, doing. In April he complained that Puerto Rico got “far more money than Texas & Florida combined” for disaster relief. And in August, as another storm bore down on the island, the president complained that he’d have to help U.S. citizens recover from a natural disaster yet again.

It’s almost as if Trump’s bellyaching betrays his inherent dislike of Puerto Rico. Some critics suggested his latest move to reduce Medicaid funding, too, could contribute to the island’s ongoing issues. “Puerto Rico may continue to lack the certainty it needs to commit to long-term increases of its very low payment rates to health care providers to stem their alarming exodus to the mainland, to provide coverage for such key health treatments as drugs to treat Hepatitis C, and to cover more poor, uninsured residents,” Robert Greenstein, an expert with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank, told Politico. Added San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, a Trump antoganist: “Trump always discriminates against Puerto Ricans.”

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