
Trump could have done much more to help Puerto Rico. And everyone knows it.

The situation in Puerto Rico is as dire as ever. Months after the hurricane struck, hundreds of thousands of Americans on the island are still without power.

And it is high time to point the finger at Donald Trump for his failure.

As Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York points out, in the wake of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico is now suffering from the longest blackout in American history, and the largest one by consumer-hours of electricity lost.


In fact, it's nearly twice the size of the blackouts caused by Hurricane Katrina:

We need to fight for the 660,000 Americans who have now lived without electricity for more than 100 days and still don’t have it. #PuertoRico now has the longest blackout in American history. pic.twitter.com/eFK0TMkjUB — Carolyn B. Maloney (@RepMaloney) January 8, 2018

And yet Trump has not even made the most basic efforts to help the island rebuild. Congress passed a bipartisan package of disaster aid months ago, but Trump is sitting on the money. He has even turned away supplies being brought in by foreign ships.

Meanwhile, Trumps FEMA officials announced they would be helping Puerto Rico restore power in the wake of the controversy surrounding a shady power company from a Trump cronys hometown being awarded an exploitative contract over their grid. But more than two months after that announcement, huge sections of the island are still dark.

Trump, for his part, has shamefully attempted to blame the whole thing on Puerto Rican laziness.

There is no excuse for this kind of inaction and failure from the highest levels of government in the wake of a major natural disaster. Hundreds are dead, and hundreds of thousands are unable to simply live their lives.

At some point, we must ask ourselves how much incompetence and neglect we are willing to accept from our leaders  and draw a line.