A former Homeland Security (DHS) official said Wednesday President Trump
Donald John TrumpThe Memo: Democrats pitch Biden as the back-to-normal candidate Obama congratulates Biden with formal nomination Jill Biden gives personal portrait of man Joe MORE called Puerto Rico “dirty” and asked if it could be exchanged for Greenland.
Miles Taylor, a former DHS official who has signed the Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden
Joe BidenThe Memo: Democrats pitch Biden as the back-to-normal candidate Obama congratulates Biden with formal nomination Jill Biden gives personal portrait of man Joe MORE, Trump said he asked about Puerto Rico’s trade for Danish territory amid trips that officials took to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.
“The president has talked about wanting to buy Greenland before, but once before we left, he not only told us he wanted to buy Greenland, he actually said he wanted to see if we could sell Puerto Rico. “Could we trade Puerto Rico for Greenland,” Taylor told MSNBC on Wednesday. “Because Puerto Rico was dirty in his words and the people were poor.”
“We don’t talk like that about our other Americans,” Taylor added. “The fact that the President of the United States wanted to take American territory from Americans and trade it for a foreign country is not too crazy.”
He said the president made the comment before a trip in August 2018.
A former White House official, who was unnamed at the time, told The New York Times last year that Trump was joking about trade in U.S. territory for Greenland.
Miles told MSNBC that he did not take the comment as a joke. He also said that Trump “expresses deep animosity towards the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes.”
‘These are people who are recovering from the worst disaster of their lives. “He is their president, he should stand by them and not try to sell to a foreign country,” Taylor said.
Trump tweeted on Tuesday that he “never heard of” Taylor, calling him a “formerly DISGRUNTLED WORKER,” after the group of Republican voters opposed Trump Taylor in an ad.
In response, Taylor tweeted a photo of himself with the president.
Asked about Taylor’s remarks on MSNBC, White House spokesman Judd Deere said the former DHS official said “another creature from the DC swamp who never understood the importance of the president’s agenda” as to why the American people chose him and clearly just want in money. ”
“President Trump has an unusual number of achievements, despite government bureaucrats who are only for themselves, not the forgotten men and women of this country,” Deere added.
Deere did not immediately know Taylor’s claims about Trump’s questions about trade in Puerto Rico.
The White House also denied suggestions that Trump did not care about the Puerto Ricans.
Trump often clashed with Puerto Rican politicians amid the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and criticism of his handling of the natural disaster.
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