President Trump To Visit Puerto Rico Amid Island-Wide Power Outages

WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump will travel to Puerto Rico, the U.S. island territory devastated by Hurricane Maria last week. Millions on the island have struggled to find basic necessities as downed trees and mangled powerlines left the whole island without electricities.

“Puerto Rico needs a lot of money," the president said Tuesday morning. "I am going to Puerto Rico on Tuesday."

He added: "It’s the earliest I can go because of the first responders and we don’t want to disrupt the relief efforts.” (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Trump faced criticism for ignoring the island's woes over the weekend as he fired of tweets about protests by NFL players during the national anthem. Monday night, he finally tweeted about Puerto Rico's dire straits, but he mentioned the fact that the island also owes extensive debts to Wall Street, which critics like former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro found to be inappropriate.

“We really have, we have worked very, very hard in Puerto Rico. It’s very tough because it’s an island,” Trump said to reporters on Tuesday. “We’ve gotten A-pluses on Texas and in Florida, and we will also on Puerto Rico. But the difference is this is an island sitting in the middle of an ocean. It’s a big ocean, it’s a very big ocean. And we’re doing a really good job.”

In Washington, officials said no armada of U.S. Navy ships was headed to the island because supplies could be carried in more efficiently by plane. The Trump administration ruled out temporarily setting aside federal restrictions on foreign ships' transportation of cargo, saying it wasn't needed. The government had waived those rules in Florida and Texas until last week.

Though the administration said the focus on aid was strong, when two Cabinet secretaries spoke at a conference on another subject — including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, whose agency is helping restore the island's power — neither made any mention of Puerto Rico or Hurricane Maria.

Democratic lawmakers with large Puerto Rican constituencies back on the mainland characterized the response so far as too little and too slow. The confirmed death toll from Maria jumped to at least 49 on Monday, including 16 in Puerto Rico.

"Puerto Ricans are Americans," said Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., who traveled to Puerto Rico over the weekend to assess the damage. "We cannot and will not turn our backs on them."

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, and White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert landed in San Juan on Monday, appearing with Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello at a news briefing. Though Rossello had urgently called for more emergency assistance over the weekend, he expressed his gratitude for the help so far.

The governor said the presence of Long and Bossert was "a clear indication that the administration is committed with Puerto Rico's recovery process."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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