Trump wanted to swap Puerto Rico for Greenland

[Gauthier]

BY RYAN CHATELAIN NATIONWIDE
PUBLISHED 3:25 PM ET AUG. 19, 2020

NATIONWIDE — A former senior official in Donald Trump’s administration says the president not only expressed interest in selling Puerto Rico but also spoke with contempt about its residents after hurricanes devastated the U.S. territory in 2017.

In an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, Miles Taylor, who served as chief of staff under former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, confirmed a New York Times story last month that said Trump asked about selling Puerto Rico. Taylor said the president inquired to aides about trading the islands for Greenland.

“Not only did he want to purchase Greenland, he actually said he wanted to see if we could sell Puerto Rico,” Taylor said. “Could we swap Puerto Rico for Greenland because, in his words, Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor?

“The president expressed deep animus towards the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes. These are people who were recovering from the worst disaster of their lifetimes. He is their president. He should be standing by them, not trying to sell them off to a foreign country.”

The Times reported the suggestion to sell Puerto Rico was never seriously pursued.

Taylor has been in the news this week after endorsing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in a video produced by the group Republican Voters Against Trump. In the video, Taylor says the behavior he witnessed from Trump “was terrifying.” He says the president had no interest in hearing about pressing national security threats and wanted to restart — and expand — his controversial family-separation policy at the border after it was shut down. Taylor also says Trump told the Federal Emergency Management Agency to stop giving money to people in California whose homes had burned in wildfires because voters in the state largely did not support him.

Taylor also said that when officials would tell Trump his demands were illegal or unfeasible, the president would cite “magical authorities.”

The former DHS official added that he and his colleagues in the Trump administration “fooled ourselves” in believing “the president’s misguided impulses could be ameliorated. We were proven decisively wrong.”

Full article

[Daven]

Bro this is old news. From like last summer LMAO.

[Gauthier]

I wasn't aware of this. It is wild.

Geopolitically wise what does Puerto Rico represent for the United States?

[Daven]

So Sinaloa is the more euro state in Mexico?

[Gauthier]

So Sinaloa is the more euro state in Mexico?

A bit off topic, but yeah, according to the studies we have on that state. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31201081/

[NSXD60]

Without the US, Puerto Rico would become a second Haiti.

[Daven]

Without the US, Puerto Rico would become a second Haiti.

Umm I don't think so. More like El Salvador or something. Perhaps a bit worst.
Imagine 9 million of people in such a small island. That even after their extensive sterilization programs.

[zebruh]

If puerto rico was never intervend with by the US, it would have been better off than it is today.

But this is old news yes.

[SilverKnight]

Without the US, Puerto Rico would become a second Haiti.

Nothing could ever match that hellhole.

[Andullero]

Geopolitically wise what does Puerto Rico represent for the United States?

Just another garrison in the region, and quite an unnecessary one at that given that they have Guantanamo and the Virgin Islands already.