In Puerto Rico three and a half million Americans are suffering without food, water, medicine, shelter, or electricity. Many people are dying. This is the worst humanitarian crisis in America since Hurricane Katrina. There is food and water apparently being delivered to the capital, San Juan, sitting in containers, but inadequate manpower and transport to get it to the people who need it.

The US can send thousands of troops to Afghanistan at the drop of a hat. It can organise a whole army to defeat Saddam Hussein, and can provision scores of military bases all over the world like clockwork. But it seems it cannot get troops and all-terrain vehicles to Puerto Rico to help distribute water, food and medical supplies. I wonder why this is? Could it have anything to do with the fact that Puerto Rican don’t have mainline American votes? Why is the President more interested in the reaction of football players to the National Anthem than he is in the the plight of Puerto Ricans? Difficult to say. What is true is that when Houston was struck by a fierce hurricane Trump and his friends couldn’t do enough for the inhabitants. Puerto Ricans, however, are left to fend for themselves, while Trump plays golf and bullies the mayor of San Juan, who is doing her job trying to get help for her people. The logistics are a shambles – the hospital ship, for instance, will take five days to get to the island – it left only today. There are hundreds of helicopters sitting on the ground, but none of the pilots have been told to fly to Puerto Rico. Trump himself has only just agreed to go to San Juan next Tuesday (for a photo op.). The incompetance is staggering. This will likely be Trump’ version of Bush’s New Orleans fiasco. Shameful.