WASHINGTON _ Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico _ and amid bitter controversy over the pace of the federal relief effort _ President Donald Trump is paying a politically fraught visit Tuesday to the hard-hit U.S. territory.
The one-day trip coincides with a national outpouring of mourning and grief over a gunman's rampage in Las Vegas that killed at least 59 people and wounded hundreds more _ and with sharp debate over whether the White House was slow to respond to the widespread destruction in Puerto Rico, whose 3.4 million residents are U.S. citizens.
Trump and First Lady Melania Trump departed the White House early Tuesday morning for a short helicopter trip to Andrews Air Force Base and the subsequent Air Force One flight to Puerto Rico. They are scheduled to meet with officials involved in the relief effort, first responders and hurricane-affected islanders.
Puerto Rico is struggling to recover from the devastating Category 4 hurricane that raked the island on Sept. 20, knocking out the power grid, snatching away cellphone service, isolating dozens of rural communities and leaving hundreds of thousands scrambling for food, water, medicine, cash and gasoline.
On the eve of his visit, Trump defended federal efforts as robust.
"It's been amazing what's been done in a very short period of time on Puerto Rico," the president declared Monday in the Oval Office. As he left Tuesday morning, he said Puerto Rico was in a "much tougher situation" than hurricane-hit Texas and Florida, but said the administration's performance was being widely lauded.
Over the weekend, Trump had stirred debate by railing against San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz's "poor leadership" and implying that Puerto Ricans were not doing enough to help themselves. He indirectly slammed the mayor in a tweet decrying "politically motivated ingrates" who criticized the scope and scale of the initial relief effort.
It was not immediately clear whether the presidential visit to the island would include an encounter with Cruz, who has made no direct response to Trump's attacks. White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the mayor had been invited to Tuesday's events, and Cruz said Monday she would willingly meet with the president or anyone who could help.
Federally directed aid to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands has dramatically picked up in recent days. But critics point to initial slowness in waiving the Jones Act, which restricts foreign-flagged shipping in U.S. waters, coupled with a delay in appointing an on-the-ground military commander to coordinate relief and a lag in dispatching a Navy hospital vessel, the Comfort.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency says more than 12,000 federal workers and officials are now in Puerto Rico, including military troops. The administration has cited signs of recovery including the reopening of businesses, notably more than half the gas stations, and restoration of running water for about half the island's residents.
