The governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands heaped praise on President Donald Trump and FEMA for “tremendous support” in the wake of two devastating hurricanes.
In a statement released Saturday night, Gov. Kenneth Mapp pleaded for continued help with recovery efforts there, and in battered Puerto Rico.
“President Donald J. Trump, his White House team, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and our other federal partners have given us tremendous support,’ Mapp said in the statement.
He also hailed retired NBC player and Virgin Island native Tim Duncan, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for having “stepped up to the plate to bring supplies and aid” to the territory.
But he painted a bleak picture of the suffering that continues.
“We still need a great deal of help and I am asking all of our friends in the U.S. Congress for help and for support www.usvirecovery.org so we may rebuild America’s paradise, known as the U.S. Virgin Islands,” he said. “If there was ever a time that the four million American citizens living in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico need your help, it is now.”
The praise was in stark contrast to criticism of Trump’s response in Puerto Rico, which triggered a harsh rebuke by the president of the mayor of San Juan — and a suggestion that Puerto Rico wasn’tdoing enough to help itself.