President Trump's criticism of the mayor of San Juan, P.R., drew sharp rebukes across social media on Saturday, including from Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and original star of "Hamilton."
Mr. Miranda, who has family in Puerto Rico and is raising money for Hurricane Maria relief efforts, said the president was "going straight to hell."
Mr. Trump lashed out at Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of the Puerto Rican capital, in a series of tweets on Saturday morning, one day after she appeared on television and described in stark terms the dire conditions on the island. The president accused Ms. Cruz of "poor leadership" and implied that Puerto Ricans were relying too heavily on the federal government, adding that they "want everything to be done for them."
Ms. Cruz responded to Mr. Trump's comments in an interview on MSNBC, saying: "I was asking for help. I wasn't saying anything nasty about the president."
She added: "This is a time when everyone shows their true colors. I have no time for distractions. All I have is time for people to move forward, get help."
Mr. Miranda defended Ms. Cruz and suggested the president was lying about the effectiveness of the federal response. He also took aim at Mr. Trump for spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
While it is not unusual for celebrities to criticize Mr. Trump on Twitter, the remarks were particularly searing, and they came as a major dispute was unfolding over whether the federal government was doing enough to help Puerto Rico, an American commonwealth with 3.4 million citizens.
The governor, Ricardo A. Rosselló, has called Hurricane Maria the "greatest catastrophe" in the island's modern history. Officials have struggled to distribute supplies and many residents are still without power, food and water.
"Puerto Ricans need supplies and resources just as badly as their fellow Americans in Texas and Florida," Mr. Miranda wrote in a recent column for The Hollywood Reporter. "This need is magnified by their geographic isolation from the mainland."
Mr. Miranda was far from the president's only high-profile critic on Saturday, as actors, singers and politicians expressed their outrage and called on Mr. Trump to do more.
The comedian and television host Ellen DeGeneres tweeted at Ms. Cruz, calling her a hero.
Representative Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut, drew comparisons between Mr. Trump's response to Hurricane Maria and President George W. Bush's actions in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
"As tone deaf as George Bush's response to Katrina was," Mr. Himes said, "I don't think he would have attacked the mayor from the comfort of a luxury golf club."
This appeared in The New York Times, September 30, 2017.
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October 1, 2017
Addendum.
1. The Jones Act which prevents shipping directly to Puerto Rico and makes Puerto Rican recovery much more difficult, was waived by a reluctant Trump on September 28. It will be back in effect on October 8. Read about this and call for the law's repeal. http://www.voices4hillary.com/the-jones-act-the-la...
2. Here are 2 more responses to Trump's attack on Carmen Yulin Cruz.
