Trump said the mayor of San Juan is 'nasty' and a 'poor' leader. She didn't take the bait.

(Image credit: Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

last updated 30 September 2017

President Trump reacted to comments from the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, about the federal response to Hurricane Maria with a series of disparaging tweets Saturday morning:

In the remarks that apparently prompted Trump's posts, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz pushed back on the White House narrative that the administration's response to Maria has been "incredible." "Where have you been?" she asked of the administration Friday. "I have been patient, but we have no time for patience anymore," Cruz continued. "I am begging. 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."

On Saturday, Cruz didn't take Trump's bait. She issued a one-tweet response Saturday morning, pleading for continued focus on life-saving relief efforts:

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The president also alleged Saturday that the media is intentionally undercutting the resolve of relief workers and announced he will visit Puerto Rico Tuesday.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.