Why is Donald Trump treating Puerto Rico & the U.S. Virgin Islands different that Texas & Florida

Donald Trump’s response to 3 hurricanes that hit America and Americans has similar and uniquely different approaches. The consistency includes the self-promotion, self-aggrandizement and constant press avails in which Trump talks about the great reviews that he is getting for responding to these crisis’s (I didn’t know there was a Presidential performance rating system). It also includes his painful boasts that no storms like these storms have ever been experienced in the history of the world, maybe even the universe (I’m only embellishing slightly) and that no one new this could happen before he learned that it has happened. In this way, Trump is very consistent in his approach to Harvey, Irma & Maria and Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.

In another area of the response, which is starkly different, is his attention, call to action and verbiage on the Texas & Florida hurricanes and the Puerto Rico & U.S. Virgin Islands. With Texas (Harvey) and Florida (Irma), there was (within the first 48 hours):

· An immediate request for emergency aid funding through Congress to pay for recovery and reconstruction needed,

· Immediate suspension of the Jones Act to speed shipping of supplies

· The immediate deployment of military personnel & leadership, heavy debris moving equipment and personnel necessary to provide other real time support.

· FEMA on the ground expediting claims filings and processing

· A clear willingness to spend an unlimited amount of money to help rebuild both areas

· The deployment of federal search and rescue resources to help with the identification and retrieval of stranded citizens.

In the case Puerto Rico (Maria) & U.S. Virgin Islands (Irma & Maria), the response different:

Criticism of Puerto Rico’s fiscal situation & the cost of helping them respond to the

Self-purported praise for the great job he’s doing helping those people, but 95% of the residents are still without power and the majority are still lacking drinking water.

The lack of visit & minimal mention of the U.S. Virgin Islands

The lazy Latino Americans in Puerto Rico don’t want to do the work, they want “White Americans via the Government” to do the work for them tweets

The lack of deployment of military vehicles, drivers and helicopters to help deliver supplies to the citizens in Puerto Rico for the first 2 weeks

The “phasing out” of Mayor Cruz as a part of the Federal response

It’s racism combined with vindictive ego, plain & clear. Puerto Rico is a majority Latino American population. It’s not a priority for Trump & his base. His 2016 voter support was 87.3% White Americans & if an election was held now, it would probably be 91%-92% White Americans. So if this affected his voter base, this would be a different story. He could better process empathy and compassion if the citizens in Puerto Rico were a majority white territory.

Now, I’m not calling Trump’s voters racist, I’m calling Trump racist. For him, it’s consumer identity politics/marketing. Understanding that his base looks the way it does, he and his team have made the logical calculation to function towards his consumers. Puerto Rico is not his consumer base. He lost Puerto Rico in the Republican primary by a 3 to 1 margin. He only received 21% of the Latino American vote (per Latino Decisions exit polling) & only 17.4% of the total vote of Americans of Color and Jewish American voters. Trump by nature, substance and action is focused on people and places he can win. That’s why Trump was focused on the responses to Texas, Louisiana and Florida, he won those states and the voter base is majority White. His voters (some are the type that comprised the KKK and Neo-Nazi groups from Charlottesville) are caught in the middle of his game. The majority care about Puerto Rico, but that isn’t shared by him.

Now I respect the concern over “identity politics”, but the truth is that this is consumer micro targeting. Trump is targeting voter groups based upon their buying needs. Other candidates and campaigns target different voting consumer groups in similar terms. There hasn’t been a “single campaign message” used to sell a candidate to voters. Voters are consumers, different views, regions, beliefs, etc.

It would be nice to think that but the evidence of Trump’s consistent narrative is to find Americans of Color to go after, so he can try to retain and grow his share of voters in the White community. Some of those attack points have included

· On African Americans, currently it’s the NFL & NBA players (He’s not attacking the owners or coaches that have come out in support of the players), those ungrateful African Americans, not honoring the flag, being Un-American, this is you being Anti-Black Americans. Translated — those African American ingrates better show respect for our White American values or they’re being Anti American (anti-white), Code for, these African Americans aren’t like us, don’t think like us & are Anti-American its crime in African American communities & the statements that we are uneducated, jobless, living only in inner cities. Attacking the only African American CEO on his business councils for leaving after the Charlottesville terrorism attack. The indifference towards any terrorist attack against African Americans.

· With the Latino community it’s the Wall, illegal immigrants & violence by illegal Latino immigrants, their lack of education when coming to America & taking jobs from Americans & the pardon of Sheriff Joe, who violated the 4th amendment & multiple court order by illegally profiling & jailing Latino Americans, the threat of deporting 800,000 Dreamers who are working, going to school and contributing to America.

· With Arabic & Muslim Americans, it’s the travel ban, the new N-word, Radical Islamic Terrorism, the attack on the Khan family, the indifference towards any terrorist attack against Arab Americans or Muslim Americans, etc.

· Towards Asian Americans, it’s everything from Anchor babies, China, “little rocket man” comments about N. Korean leader & related negative stereotypical comments about the Asian region.

This is who Trump is. He deals with White Americans differently, save those who his base doesn’t like (Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Bob Corker, Richard Blumenthal, etc.) He treats them comparably to how he treats Americans and persons of color. His actions don’t provide me with any belief that Donald Trump is not motivated to help Puerto Rico due to the concentration of the population. Trump’s cone is not America, it’s only his 63 million voters &; White Americans who support him. He verbally attacks Americans of Color on Regular basis, has only visited 1 state that voted against him, hasn’t went to 1 city or county that’s majority non-white. Like George Constanza said, it’s not you, it’s Trump.