President Donald Trump and his aides are facing a growing backlash over their response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, with federal teams on the island struggling to deliver aid to those in need even as the White House trumpets its efforts as a success story.

The tension over the Trump administration’s self praise spilled out on Friday morning, with the San Juan mayor lashing out at acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, who said on Thursday that the Maria relief efforts are a "good news story.”


“Damn it, this is not a good news story. This is a people are dying story. This is a life-or-death story,” San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said on CNN. “When you have to pull people down from their buildings — I'm sorry, but that really upsets me and frustrates me. You know, I would ask her to come down here and visit the towns, and then make a statement like that which frankly it is an irresponsible statement.”

Trump, who is preparing to visit Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Tuesday, has also lavished praise on his administration’s response, writing on Twitter Friday morning that “Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello just stated: ‘The Administration and the President, every time we've spoken, they've delivered.’”

A day earlier, Trump wrote that “FEMA & First Responders are doing a GREAT job in Puerto Rico. Massive food & water delivered… Wish press would treat fairly!” adding in a post later Thursday that Puerto Rico’s “governor said ‘great job!’"

On Friday morning, Trump opened a speech on tax reform by pledging, "We will not rest ... until the people of Puerto Rico are safe," while also explaining that his administration has been handed an immensely difficult situation.

"This is an island surrounded by water. Big water. Ocean water," Trump said about the U.S. territory, adding later, "We've never seen a situation like this."

But while Puerto Rican officials have expressed appreciation for the White House’s outreach, they have also made clear that what has been done so far has been insufficient to meet the needs of the island’s 3.5 million U.S. citizens. In the same Fox News interview where Rossello praised Trump for his efforts thus far, he made clear that “we do need more aid” and that obtaining and distributing that aid remains a problem.

Roughly half of Puerto Ricans are still without running water, officials said Friday at a press conference in the island’s capital, San Juan, and just 36 of its 69 hospitals are open and have power. Retirement homes “are becoming just human cages for people that are sick and unable to fend for themselves,” Cruz said Friday morning.

The San Juan mayor said on CNN that it has been logistics, not the presence of supplies themselves, that has thus far presented the toughest hurdle to clear. She said Friday morning that a day earlier there had been thousands of shipping containers filled with supplies stuck at a port and unable to move. Only recently had those containers started to make their way out of the port, she said.

In San Juan, Cruz said her residents had received four pallets of water on Thursday — slightly more than 4,000 bottles for a population of roughly 350,000 people — in addition to four pallets of food and 12 pallets of baby food and supplies.

The situation is more dire in other parts of the island, she said, relaying her conversation with another mayor who said his people had no food, no medicine and were drinking from a creek that they also used to bathe and wash their clothes.

“This is a message for President Trump: Thank you for calling San Juan yesterday and listening for our mayday call. But sir, there’s 77 other towns that are waiting. They’re waiting anxiously and will be very grateful to you and to the American people if you continue to step up,” Cruz said. “Again, Mr. Trump, we appreciate everything you are doing and we know it can be done faster. Help us save lives. We will be forever grateful.”

Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert, in his own CNN interview on Friday morning that preceded Cruz’s, disputed the suggestion that the White House’s commitment to the island has been anything but absolute and that the logistical strategy employed by the federal government has been insufficient.

Because it is an island, Bossert said that recovery efforts in Puerto Rico present specific challenges, but he said criticism from “New Day” anchor Chris Cuomo and others on CNN “wasn’t well placed.”

“I don't accept that we're doing anything short of everything we can do. Yes, I accept that the people are going to see, at the very end, the last person in the most hardest-to-reach area is going to receive assistance in a way that’s less acceptable than we’d like to,” Bossert said.

“We’d like to give them a bottle of water and food immediately. But I do accept that there’s going to be a difference between a full-throated, adequate response and the complete satisfaction of bringing that entire territory back to its full, functional state.”

Duke, at a press conference Friday in San Juan, said the integration between Puerto Rican, U.S. military and other federal resources has been "really admirable" and will "set the standard for the future." And while she did not directly address her "good news" remark from the previous day, she stood behind her statement that she was pleased with the federal government's recovery efforts thus far.

"Yesterday, I was asked if I was happy and satisfied with the recovery. I am proud of the work that's being done. I am proud of Americans helping Americans, friends and strangers alike. I am proud of the work that DoD, FEMA, and the territory along with first responders are doing," Duke said. "Clearly the situation here in Puerto Rico after the devastating hurricane is not satisfactory. But together we are getting there, and the progress today is very, very strong. The president and I will not be fully satisfied, however, until every Puerto Rican is back home, the power is back on, clean water is freely available, schools and hospitals are fully open and the Puerto Rican economy is working."

In addition to routing supplies and manpower to Puerto Rico, the Trump administration has also sought this week to combat the notion that the island has not been top of mind for the president. Such criticism began last weekend when Trump launched a rhetorical tirade against the NFL and its players who kneel in protest during the national anthem, posting to Twitter several times on the issue while remaining silent on Puerto Rico, which was reeling from Maria’s landfall last week.

Trump and his White House have insisted that Puerto Rico has remained a continuous point of focus in the days since the hurricane hit the island, and the president has mentioned the storm in his social media posts multiple times this week.

But the president also appeared to place some blame this week on Puerto Rico for its dire situation, noting the U.S. territory’s “broken infrastructure & massive debt” in a tweet.

On Friday, he wrote that “big decisions will have to be made as to the cost of its rebuilding,” a statement Bossert sought to clarify by explaining that Puerto Rico’s lack of liquid financial assets — the island declared a form of bankruptcy last May — meant the federal government was paying for the entirety of recovery efforts.

“Once we stabilize, then let's talk about the debt,” Cruz said on CNN in a second interview with the network. “You know what? There ain't going to be anybody to pay the debt. If we let them die, nobody’s going to pay the debt.”

