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For weeks, the governor’s request has gone unanswered.
Instead, Rosselló, a Democrat, has tried to communicate with the president publicly, saying in cable news interviews, official appearances and on Twitter that he fears Trump has been misled about Puerto Rico’s needs.
Trump, in a string of overnight and early-morning posts, once again cast Puerto Rican leaders this week as “incompetent and corrupt” for seeking additional federal aid. “The best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico is President Donald J. Trump,” the president wrote on Twitter. “So many wonderful people, but with such bad Island leadership and with so much money wasted.”
Rosselló on Tuesday responded in a tweet of his own. “Mr. President, once again, we are not your adversaries, we are your citizens,” Rosselló wrote.
On Monday, the Senate blocked a disaster aid package for states across the country over disagreement about how much money to authorize for Puerto Rico. Trump claimed the island has received $91 billion, which is inaccurate; that’s how much damage Hurricane Maria caused the island, according to a federal government estimate.
The governor had other issues to deal with at home: The resignations of two power players on his Cabinet became public late Monday. Julia Keleher, the education secretary, and Héctor M. Pesquera, the public safety secretary, had been among the least popular members of Rosselló’s government.
That’s not to say Puerto Ricans necessarily disagree with Trump’s criticism of the commonwealth’s leaders, even if many locals dislike the president or the disdainful way in which he sometimes refers to the island.
“We have a political caste that is opportunistic and extremely corrupt,” said Eduardo Lalo, a well-known local novelist, humanities professor and opinion columnist. “What the president says, of course it’s clumsy and tremendously vulgar, and he says it for reasons of his own that are not substantive. But it’s also objective.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.