The former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor told MSNBC that Donald Trump suggested that the U.S. should swap Puerto Rico for Greenland and made derogatory remarks about Puerto Rican people on multiple occasions.
“In his words, Puerto Rico was dirty, and the people were poor,” Taylor said. “These are Americans…we don’t talk about our fellow Americans that way.”
Taylor told MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson that in 2018, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Trump remarked that the United States should purchase Greenland from Denmark and “swap” it for Puerto Rico. “These are people who are recovering from the worst disaster of their lifetimes,” Taylor said. “He is their president. He should be standing by them, not trying to sell them off to a foreign country.”
When asked if he thought it was just a joke, Taylor said that several times Trump had “expressed deep animus towards the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes.” Taylor, who is endorsing Joe Biden for president, is a part of Republican Voters Against Trump, and previously called the President’s behavior “terrifying.”
In an op-ed for ‘The Washington Post,’ the former DHS chief wrote, “The president wanted to exploit the Department of Homeland Security for his own political purposes and to fuel his own agenda.” He called Trump was vindictive and claimed he favored “ripping children away from their [migrant] parents” at the border and attempted to cut federal funding in California after the disastrous 2018 wildfires because the majority of state residents didn’t support him politically.
The former acting secretary of homeland security, Elaine Duke, also made similar claims to Taylor’s last month, saying Trump asked about “selling” Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Trump has fired off several tweets about Puerto Rico over the last two years, calling the island corrupt, claiming the people are ungrateful and criticizing local leaders.
