Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico two and half years ago and in that time the island has received over 40 billion dollars in federal disaster relief. President Trump thinks they’ve gotten enough and he’s right, but Puerto Rico’s governor wants more. In what qualifies as the worst negotiating tactic ever Governor Ricardo Rosselló has threatened to punch Trump in the mouth. It’s unclear if he’s saying “give me more money or I’ll punch you” but he definitely threatened to punch the President.
Rosselló was on CNN and “impartial” Jim Acosta was trying to get the Puerto Rican governor to say that President Trump is a bully. Rosselló not only took the bait, he ran the line all the way out to sea.
“If the bully gets close, I’ll punch the bully in the mouth,” said Rosselló of Trump.
Jim Acosta could barely contain his excitement by this statement.
“Just like that?” Acosta asked.
“Just like that,” Rosselló replied.
Like I said, this is not a great negotiating technique. Maybe Rosselló should have read Art of the Deal before threatening to punch Trump in the mouth. Things were already bad, when Rosselló followed up with this:
“It would be a mistake to confuse courtesy with courage,” said Rosselló.
He just threatened to punch the President of the United States in the mouth. Was that courtesy or courage? Honestly, I’m confused because neither seems to fit.
Later in the interview, Acosta was leading Rosselló into more attacks on President Trump:
“Do you think the President treats people of Puerto Rico as citizens?” asked Acosta.
“Well, you know, he treats us as second-class citizens,” Rosselló answered.
As was already mentioned, President Trump has sent $40 billion dollars Puerto Rico’s way. Putting that in perspective, Texas got $25 billion in disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey and Florida only received $7 billion for Hurricane Irma. Second-class looks pretty sweet to me.
After saying he would punch Trump if he got close, Rosselló then said this:
“I don’t think getting into a kicking and screaming match with the President does any good. I don’t think anyone can beat the President on a kicking and screaming match,” said Rosselló.
But what about a punching and screaming match?
Finally, the guy who just threatened to punch Trump in the mouth said, “What I’m aiming to do is making sure that reason prevails.”
There really isn’t anything more unreasonable than threatening to punch the President in the mouth. Even in this age of Trump Derangement Syndrome, Rosselló’s threat stands out as particularly crazy.
The thing is, Puerto Rico is demanding an additional $139 billion on top of the $40 billion they already got. The entire territory is made out scrap wood and corrugated metal. How could a hurricane possibly do almost $200 billion in damage? You could put Puerto Rico back to the way it was before Hurricane Maria for free by scavenging the debris and rebuilding the shacks.
While we’re on the subject, what benefit does the United States get by keeping Puerto Rico as a territory? Maybe it’s time we grant them their independence so they can be their own country instead of mooching off of us.
