In August of 2019, news broke that Donald Trump joked he wanted to trade Puerto Rico for Greenland. Initially, it seemed like just another racist Trump statement. But now, a past White House official is saying that he believes Trump was not joking.
The Former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor said in an interview on MSNBC Wednesday that Trump wasn’t joking when he said that. He mentioned the incident when journalist Hallie Jackson asked what was the most disturbing thought from his interactions with Donald Trump that were “still sitting with you today.”
“There was a time when of course we were spending a lot of days down in Puerto Rico…the president has talked before about wanting to purchase Greenland, but one time before we went down he told us 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,” Taylor said, “because in his words, Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor.”
“These are Americans,” Taylor added, “we don’t talk about Americans that way.” He said that he did not take it as a joke as the President “expressed deep animus towards the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes.”
The President’s disdain for Puerto Rico has always been clear—is this even shocking anymore?
Latino Rebels did reach out to the White House for comment about what Taylor said. As of this posting, the White House has not responded.
The Joe Biden campaign issued a statement:
Biden for President Statement on Trump’s Continued Mistreatment and Attacks on Puerto Rico: pic.twitter.com/qhqqP1o8a8
— Cristóbal Alex (@CristobalJAlex) August 19, 2020
Puerto Rico is way more developed than Greenland, and also has one of the most talented bilinguals: English/Spanish college educated professionals population in the world. Our tropical land is fertil, and we can produce and harvest most anything as our soil it rich. With 78 beautiful cities that continue growing each year, makes it one of the most developing places in the world, and in Latin America. He doesn’t know the value of this tropical paradise, and its 192 islands and atols. His jingoism does let him see beyond this point or fact. Que viva Puerto Rico!!!
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