US President Donald Trump, spending the weekend at his Bedminister golf resort in New Jersey, attacked the Mayor of San Juan for "poor leadership" and accused her of conspiring with Democrats to criticise his Administration's response to storm-ravaged Puerto Rico.
Trump blasted Mayor Carmen Yuln Cruz in a series of tweets that aimed to deflect blame for the deepening humanitarian crisis on the island and to cast the mounting criticism against him as partisan attacks - from local officials, political rivals and the media.
"The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump," Trump wrote on Twitter. He added that Cruz and other local officials "want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort".
The outburst came as Trump has bristled over accusations from local officials that the federal Government has not moved quickly enough to provide support and aid amid widespread power outages that have left residents without air conditioning, while food, drinking water and other basic necessities are in short supply in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. At least 16 people have died since the storm struck last week, with many others in critical condition.
On Saturday, Cruz pleaded for additional help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, saying at a news conference: "I am begging, begging anyone who can hear us to save us from dying . . . We are dying and you are killing us with the inefficiency."
