While the island of Puerto Rico continues the attempt to recover from the ravages of Hurricane Maria of September 2017, President Trump in his inimitable way of dealing with any problem has told members of his party that he doesn't want another dollar going to Puerto Rico, that they have had enough aid and it is their leadership's incompetence that has led to their continuing suffering.

His attitude about Puerto Rico has puzzled most Americans and even some in his own party, as the U.S. has usually come through during disasters of every kind until people have recovered. It is possible that he still can't get it through his head that these people are American citizens and are entitled to the same benefits as other Americans. It could be because the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, and the island's governor, Ricardo Rosello, have been vociferous and quite public in their criticism of Trump and the way he has handled the disaster.

He has said that any money that would be sent to the island would be taking money away from the farmers of the Midwest, who are suffering the effects of the worst flooding in memory and many of them are in danger of losing their farms or their capacity to produce a crop this coming season. Many farmers who cultivate thousands of acres of crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat may not recover. Of course, it didn't help that Trump started a trade war (“Trade wars are easy to win,” he declared.) with China, previously one of the biggest customers of soybeans from the U.S. heartland.

His irrational act of starting a trade war without the least understanding of trade among nations which is complicated enough without his having thrown an economic bomb into the middle of it, with no plan and no idea of consequences of his actions. When the industrial farmers and agribusiness as one voice complained that he was going to damage or eliminate them, he came up with billions of dollars to make up for the lost China trade. The billions, however, made up very little of the farmers' losses and then the floods hit them with another nearly fatal blow.

Then Trump claimed, wrongly, as is usually the case, that Puerto Rico has already received $91 billion in aid and resolved not to give them another penny. Mayor Cruz pointed out that the island has received upwards of $13 billion in aid. She said in an interview on MSNBC that he was “literally” preventing many Puerto Ricans from putting food on their tables and said that he was having a classic “Trump temper tantrum” that he throws when he doesn't get his way.

Again, he just doesn't seem to get the idea that there is an island that is a commonwealth of the U.S., that their people are American citizens, and that he should take action to help them in their time of need. Mayor Cruz speculated that he could be smarting from the bankruptcy of his golf course on the island. It could be the reason, but the more likely cause is that Cruz was highly critical of Trump when aid was not forthcoming and that's when he started to call her names, the latest of which are “crazed” and “incompetent.” Imagine, a woman standing up to an incompetent with power. Trump would not have it and withholding aid, material and financial, is the way for him to show his pique.

Another “reason” that he might be willing to abandon Puerto Rico is that they are not Norwegians. Remember that he likes northern Europeans, not the brown and black peoples from the South, but even he would not say that out loud at this time, because he's preparing for his reelection in 2020 and he believes that has enough support to win another term. Others, those who have looked at what he has done to the country, disagree.

For example, his much-touted tax cut of 2017 will provide only mild relief for the working class and middle class, while it is another windfall for the millionaire and billionaire classes, who have been doing pretty well all on their own. Who needs homes on both coasts, a chateau in the Rockies, and a retreat in the Caribbean? Apparently, they do, and they're getting more from this president.

About debt, Nobel-Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote this week that the tax cut likely will increase the budget deficit by more than $2 trillion. That amount of money could solve many of the problems that are like open sores in the body politic that never go away. It would, provided it was used intelligently, build new schools in ghettoes and rural poverty enclaves. It could provide a sweeping low-cost housing program for the entire country, provide free education through four years of college, provide health care for every single person in the country, and much more.

These things would never come to pass in a Trump Administration or under a bankrupt political party such as the Republicans, who have come to heel at Trump's beckoning. The Democrats don't come off a whole lot better, but they are better at this point. Neither party wants to take the action that is desperately needed to make the health and welfare of the people their prime concern. Both are dependent on the wealthy class and corporations for their political campaign money and are loath to give it up. Only a few candidates depend on millions of small donations and they are, generally, thought to be on the fringe of politics and, thus, have little chance of being elected, let alone have their programs and policies accepted by the powers that be.

To add to the misery of the American people, as well as peoples around the world where the U.S. has 800 bases, Trump keeps adding to the military and “defense” budget each year, taking up 54 percent of discretionary spending in 2020. It tells you where the interests of Trump and the military-industrial complex lie. War, preparation for war, and more war on the horizon.

That's what you get when you have a tough guy (Cadet Bone Spurs) as president, who is more than willing to bluster, bloviate, and lie his way through every day, and send someone else's sons and daughters off to war to be maimed and killed, to come home with everlasting wounds and maladies and post-traumatic stress disorder. Others who have come before Trump in the Oval Office have done similar things, but the most odious, dangerous, and deadly is the one who occupies the office today.