San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz Blasts Donald Trump, Puerto Rico Still Dark 100 Days After Maria

o Rico still remains largely in the dark 100-days after Hurricane Maria hit the island, prompting San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz to blast President Donald Trump as “disrespectful to the Puerto Rican people.”

“He was disrespectful to the Puerto Rican people, he was disrespectful to the American people who were leaving their homes to come help us here,” Cruz recently told ABC News. “Where he needed to be a commander in chief, he was a disaster-in-chief.”

Yulín Cruz further criticized Trump as different from most every other U.S. citizen she has come in contact with since the storm hit and devastated in “he does not embody the values of the good-hearted American people that have [made] sure that we are not forgotten.”

Maria hit the island on Sept. 20, wiping out power and leaving thousands without clean drinking water. More than three months later, Yulín Cruz said that largely remains the case. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers added it could be at least another six-months before power to the area is fully restored.

Almost from the beginning, Yulín Cruz has blasted the Trump administration’s efforts as subpar, with her and other leaders calling on the White House to do more to help and provide greater federal assistance.

Trump did not take well to the criticism, ultimately turning to his Twitter page to blast Yulín Cruz as having “poor leadership ability” and suggesting that Puerto Rico was to blame for the mass destruction.

“They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort,” Trump tweeted.

During his lone visit to the island since the storm hit, Trump also openly referred to the cost associated with the relief the U.S. was providing, directly telling Puerto Rican officials it had thrown the U.S. budget “a little out of whack.”

Critics were quick to compare that attitude and tone to the one Trump and his administration publicly took in working with the people of Florida and Texas in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

More recently, the death toll linked to Maria has dramatically spiked from the early official number of 64 to potentially well over 1,000, as more data has become available.

“We owe it to the memory of those people to know,” Cruz told ABC News. “And we owe it to the transformation of Puerto Rico: why they died, and how we can ensure that this does not happen again.”