A former senior White House official Miles Taylor said US President Donald Trump needed to sell Puerto Rico or swap it for Greenland because he viewed the Caribbean territory as dirty and poor. Taylor served as chief of staff to the former Department for Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. He said President Trump made the comments in August 2018 (less than a year after Puerto Rico had been devastated by Hurricane Maria). Taylor informed MSNBC and said, “Not only did he want to purchase Greenland, he actually said he wanted to see if we could sell Puerto Rico. Could we swap Puerto Rico for Greenland because, in his words, Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor”?
The recent comments of Taylor backed Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. The Times reported that the White House officials never seriously pursued the suggestion of selling Puerto Rico. It is noteworthy that Hurricane Maria was a deadly category-5 hurricane that damaged through Dominica, St Croix, and Puerto Rico in September 2017. It is considered one of the worst natural disasters to hit the islands, and the most devastating Atlantic hurricane since Jeanne hit the region in 2004. Taylor also said, “The president expressed deep animus towards the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes. These are people who were recovering from the worst disaster of their lifetimes. He is their president. He should be standing by them, not trying to sell them off to a foreign country”.
President Trump responded to the comments of Taylor on Twitter. He described the former DHS official as a disgruntled employee who he had never heard of. The White House spokesperson Judd Deere said the former DHS official is another creature of the DC swamp who never understood the importance of the president’s agenda or why the American people elected him and clearly just wants to cash in. point to be noted that Taylor said in August 2018, Trump was widely criticized for his handling of the disaster. The Mayor of Puerto Rico Carmen Yulin Cruz said at the time that Trump’s response to the hurricane was a stain on his presidency. Cruz said, “The Trump administration killed the Puerto Rican with neglect”.