Donald Trump's trip to Puerto Rico probably didn't go as smoothly as his handlers would have liked. He demanded praise, complained that relief efforts were really pulling a doozy on the federal budget, and headed for a photo op of him handing out supplies. It should have been a smooth, simple way to counter the charges that he didn't care about Puerto Rico or see Puerto Ricans as people worth saving (or, you know, U.S. citizens). But he even bungled this, chucking paper towel rolls into the crowd like they were party favors.

But in a story out Wednesday, the Washington Post highlighted just how much the president's trip misrepresented the scale of the disaster. He stayed mostly in Guaynabo, a wealthy suburb of San Juan that's much, much farther along recovery-wise than other parts of the island. (By contrast, the town of Caguas, 10 miles southeast of Guaynabo, saw 1200 houses flattened by the Hurricane Maria.) And the church Trump went to, a favorite of conservatives who've relocated from the mainland U.S., was already well stocked with relief supplies.

The real cringe-worthy moment came when Trump spoke with a local volunteer:

The church is also distributing water purification kits, and a member explained the process to the president.

“Wait,” Trump said, “you put it in dirty water?”

“And then you can drink it after 10 to 12 hours,” she explained.

“Would you do it? Would you drink it?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said.

“Really?” Trump said, a disgusted look coming across his face.

“Really,” she said.

“Is this your company or something?” Trump asked the woman, seeming suspicious of the aggressive pitch.

“No,” she said, “I’m part of the church.”

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First of all, Trump seems to think that he's on Shark Tank here. Someone is giving him an explanation for a thing he's never heard of, so they must want him to invest in it. And in Trump's world it probably made sense that this volunteer was actually there to hawk a product. But the glaring thing is his inability to process what's going on outside of their conversation. Really, you would drink filthy water? Why? What possible thing could have happened, to this entire island, maybe in the last two weeks, that would make you do that? Does it have anything to do with why I'm here?

This may be the reason why Trump is so awkward at events like this in Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas, surrounded by people whose lives have been ruined. It's hard to know what tone to hit if you can't even imagine what it's like to be in need.

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