As Trump Continues To Bash San Juan Mayor, Photos Emerge Of Her Courage

Having had a night at his golf club in New Jersey to consider his attacks on the mayor of San Juan, which drew a backlash, President Trump returned to Twitter on Sunday morning, to launch a new attack and defend his administration's response. It's been more than one week since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, leaving millions with out power and easy access to food, water, and medicine.

In tweets on Sunday morning, the president – without mentioning names – referred to "politically motivated ingrates."

If a picture is worth a thousand words then the image of Cruz wading waist deep through floodwaters speaks to her leadership skills even as the U.S. territory and its capital city deal with a mounting humanitarian crisis caused by a devastating hurricane and a slowed response.

Trump attacked Cruz on Saturday in a series of early morning tweets, saying she had shown "poor leadership." The first in a series of tweets read "The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump."

In a follow-up tweet, the president said "...Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They...." and the third tweet continued "...want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job."

The president's words come just a day after Cruz made an impassioned plea begging the federal government and Trump himself to act and provide much needed aid to the devastated island.

“I will do what I never thought I was going to do: I am begging. I am begging anyone that can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying. And you are killing us with the inefficiency and bureaucracy," Cruz said.

She also addressed Trump directly, asking that he take charge and save lives.

"If not, the world will see how we are treated not as second-class citizens but as animals that can be disposed of," Cruz said. "Enough is enough."

Around the same time Trump first tweeted on Saturday, Cruz responded with a tweet and four photos showing her active with the response effort and one photo in particular seemed to have caught the eye of many. It was Cruz in waist deep water holding a megaphone. The photo was widely shared on Twitter and many used it to prove the point that Cruz was not showing "poor leadership" as the president claimed.

Cruz, in her tweet, said there was one goal and that was to save lives. She later went on MSNBC and reiterated her point.

It's not only the photo that speaks to the mayor's leadership. The Washington Post detailed the leadership skills she showed during the storm as she worked nonstop on the ground in San Juan. Speaking to The Post just three days after the storm, Cruz said that walking through San Juan, she saw "sheer pain in people's eyes."

“I know we’re not going to get to everybody in time. . . . Two days ago I said I was concerned about that,"
she said. "Now I know we won’t get to everybody in time.”

And Cruz's comments that apparently stoked Trump's ire weren't the first that involved her asking for help. On Tuesday, she told CBS News that FEMA had to cut the red tape and start distributing food and water to the territory. She also said she had helped get people into ambulances, including those who had gone without dialysis for days and some who were gasping for air.

The federal government has come under criticism for its response to the disaster in Puerto Rico, with some questioning why authorities weren't prepared in advance as hurricane models consistently had Puerto Rico in the path of Hurricane Maria.

BuzzFeed News reported that as Puerto Ricans waited for the federal government to respond, its been the local mayors on the territory who have been at the forefront of the response effort. Rafael Surrillo, the mayor of Yabucoa, told BuzzFeed he has not help from the state or federal government.

“We don't have potable water or food. There are landslides still occurring because the soil is unable to retain any more water,” Jaime Barlucea, the mayor of Adjuntas, told BuzzFeed News.

After a week of growing criticism, the president's patience appears to be waning. His administration has tried in recent days to combat the perception that he failed to quickly grasp the magnitude of Maria's destruction and has given the U.S. commonwealth less attention than he'd bestowed on states hit by Harvey and Irma. Last weekend, the president was engaged in a fight with the NFL and the issue of kneeling during the national anthem as desperate Puerto Ricans were left without basic necessities.

After going days without mentioning the hurricane-devastated island after the storm, administration officials have held numerous press conferences describing their relief efforts and Trump has mentioned Puerto Rico at nearly every public event.

Thousands more Puerto Ricans have received water and rationed food as an aid bottleneck has begun to ease. Telecommunications are back for about 30 percent of the island, nearly half of the supermarkets have reopened at least for reduced hours and about 60 percent of the gas stations are pumping. But many remain desperate for necessities, most urgently water, long after the Sept. 20 hurricane. Medical facilities on the island have also been strained by the hurricane.

Trump is scheduled to spend an hour Saturday checking in by phone with FEMA Administrator Brock Long, Puerto Rico's governor, Ricardo Rosselló, and other local officials.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Photo: San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz (R) greets Esperanza Ruiz as she arrives at the temporary government center setup at the Roberto Clemente stadium in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria on September 30, 2017 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico experienced widespread damage including most of the electrical, gas and water grid as well as agriculture after Hurricane Maria, a category 4 hurricane, passed through. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images News/Getty Images)