Donald Trump has spent another weekend at a golf club while the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico pleaded for clean water in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
Mr Trump, who frequently criticised predecessor Barack Obama for trips to play golf, headed for an unscheduled jaunt to his Potomac Falls, Virginia Trump National Golf Club, just northwest of Washington DC. It is 69th such trip during his presidency.
The day after Carmen Yulin Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, tweeted that that “US [government] does not want to help” and copied the United Nations on it, seeking better relief help.
She praised Americans for wanting to help, however, as supplies are being sent continuously but the government response has not been as rapid as it was for Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida, according to Ms Yulin Cruz.
Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello has ordered an investigation of water distribution on the hurricane-battered island and warned that there would be “hell to pay” for mishandling of the supplies.
In an interview with CNN, Mr Rossello said drinking water supplies have been restored to roughly 60 per cent of the island but some areas in the north remained at only 20 per cent nearly three weeks the hurricane passed through.
“We're delivering food to all of the municipalities, and water,” he said. “There were complaints that that water in some places was not getting to the people so I ordered a full investigation.”
“If there is a place, a locality that is not delivering food to the people of Puerto Rico that need it, there's going to be some hell to pay,” Mr Rossello said.
Hurricane Maria devastated the US territory island of 3.4 million citizens. At least 90 per cent of the population is still without power three weeks after the storm made landfall and almost half do not access to clean water.
Ms Yulin Cruz and the Trump administration have had a contentious, public back-and-forth in the wake of the hurricane, but Mr Trump has not responded to her latest tweet.
It seemed to begin when the mayor criticised Acting Director of Homeland Security Elaine Duke’s comments that despite reports of supplies being trapped in Puerto Rican ports and bureaucratic holdups in distributing aid, “this is a good news story.”
Ms Duke added that she is "very satisfied, I know it is a hard storm to recover from but the amount of progress that's been made - and I would really appreciate any support that we can get."
The mayor snapped back: "damn it, this is not a good news story" after watching a tape of Ms Duke’s comments.
"Maybe from where she's standing it's a good news story, but when you're drinking from a creek, when you don't have food for a baby, it's not a good news story," the mayor said.
"This is a 'people are dying' story, this is a life and death story, this is a truckload of stuff that cannot be taken to people story," the mayor said on the verge of tears and sounding exhausted.
Mr Trump, on another trip to a golf club that weekend, responded via Twitter.
He wrote that Ms Yulin Cruz was “told by the Democrats that you must be nasty” to him and that she exhibited “such poor leadership.”
The tension continued as Ms Yulin Cruz was prohibited from speaking during meetings while the president visited Puerto Rico.
Part of her plea was to let Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) workers do their jobs instead, for instance, requiring people to register online before receiving aid.
He mostly blamed “fake news” for reports that relief efforts on the island were unsatisfactory but may have fueled tensions between the pair when he said Puerto Ricans should be "very proud" their death toll was only 16 at the time and not closer to the 1,833 who died in 2005 in Hurricane Katrina.
He also said that the money spent on Puerto Rico relief had "thrown our budget a little of whack, because we have spent a lot of money...and that’s fine.”
This past weekend marked the 89th day overall that Mr Trump has spent at one of his own properties during his administration, which amounts to about 25 per cent of his 261 days in office.
