President Joe Biden promised to provide federal support to Puerto Rico as long as he is in office, delivering a message steeped in political undertones as the island reels from the devastation of Hurricane Fiona.
Biden on Monday traveled to Puerto Rico’s hardest-hit area to assess storm damage from the deadly hurricane and pitch the administration’s relief efforts. But as he left the White House, the president began to draw a contrast with his former and potential future Republican opponent and later touted his own close ties to the island’s political diaspora.
“We came here in person to show that we’re with you. All of America is with you as you recover and rebuild,” Biden said with first lady Jill beside him, promising investments in public transit ports, airports, water safety, and high-speed internet, as well as planning for extreme weather.
Biden said he would support the island’s residents throughout the process, promising that “as we rebuild, we have to ensure that we build it to last.”
“We are not leaving here as long as I’m president, until everything — I mean this sincerely — until every single thing that we can do is done,” he said.
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As he left the White House earlier in the day, the president criticized the Trump administration’s response to Hurricane Maria in 2017, telling reporters that the island’s residents “haven’t been taken very good care of.”
The statement seemed to directly reference former President Donald Trump, who in 2019 said he had “taken care” of the island better than “any living human being.”
Arriving in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Biden paid tribute to first responders and emergency staff, many of whom he said were Puerto Rican. Others, he said, were from New Jersey and New York, states with large Puerto Rican populations.
And he said knew the diaspora well from his years representing Delaware in Congress. “I was sort of raised in the Puerto Rican community at home, politically,” Biden said during several minutes of remarks.
Biden’s visit on Monday, his first since taking office, was a new opportunity for the president to swipe at his Republican predecessor and pledge support to a growing political force outside the island. In swing state Florida, Puerto Ricans overtook New York as the state with the largest population from the island in 2017.
While residents of the island cannot vote in presidential elections, the diaspora vote has grown as more Puerto Ricans depart after major disasters. When Trump earned then-Gov. Wanda Vazquez’s endorsement in the 2020 presidential election, it was viewed as a boost as he courted Latino voters in his home state.
Biden has lately upped his criticism of Trump as members of his party prepare to face off against their GOP counterparts.
Using Trump as a foil on Monday, Biden vowed that he would ensure Puerto Ricans “get every single dollar promised.”
“After Maria, Congress approved billions of dollars for Puerto Rico, much of it not having gotten here — initially,” Biden said. “We’re going to make sure you get every single dollar promised. I’m going to make sure you get every single dollar promised.”
Trump had a tense relationship with some of Puerto Rico’s leaders, stemming from his administration’s response to Maria and reports of withholding federal aid. His visit to San Juan after the hurricane in 2017 is often remembered for Trump tossing paper towels into a crowd of cheering hurricane survivors.
Biden’s press secretary, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One about the more than $10 billion authorized by the president for the Fiona cleanup, said Trump had stalled Puerto Rico’s access to billions of dollars in federal funds at a time of need.
“The last administration, as I said at the top, restricted ability for Puerto Rico to access $5 billion in funds,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “That’s including for critical recovery and reconstruction needs, and so that’s what we saw in the last administration.”
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She added that Biden was evincing his promises to stand by the island by traveling to the hardest-hit area.
“It is an area that presidents have not gone to before,” Jean-Pierre said. “I think that shows the president and the first lady’s commitment to the people of Puerto Rico, to be able to go there to an area where people have lost almost everything.”
