Former Chief of Staff with the Department of Homeland Security, Miles Taylor said that Trump tried to trade Puerto Rico for Greenland.
Taylor said on MSNBC Live with Hallie Jackson:
I’m going to tell you one thing that popped into my head, Hallie. There was a time when, of course, we were spending a lot of our days down in Puerto Rico after the hurricanes wreaked devastation down there, U.S. Virgin Islands. And other places. There was a trip that we made down there in August in 2018 and I remember before we went, the president said something and your viewers are going to be somewhat familiar with this, the president talked before about wanting to purchase Greenland, but one time before we went down, he told us not only did he want to purchase Greenland, he said he wanted to see if we could sell Puerto Rico, could we swap Puerto Rico for Greenland because in his words, Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor.
These are Americans, Hallie. And we don’t talk about our fellow Americans that way and the fact that the president of the United States wanted to take a U.S. Territory of Americans and swap it for a foreign country is beyond galling. But this was a real thing. This is the president. This is the man who sits behind the resolute desk and — I did not take it as a joke. On multiple occasions, the president expressed interest in buying Greenland. The president expressed deep animus towards the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes. These are people who are recovering from the worst disaster of their lifetimes, he’s their president, he should be standing by them, not trying to sell them off to a foreign country.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Video:
Former DHS Chief of Staff Miles Taylor said that Trump called Puerto Ricans dirty and poor, and tried to trade Puerto Rico for Greenland. pic.twitter.com/9Amtc8oiSp
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 19, 2020
Trump’s racism is well known. He mistreated Puerto Rico after several natural disasters because the Americans on the island are a majority non-white. Trump tried to sell American citizens to a foreign country, which is not a surprise because Trump has been selling out the United States for four years.
Donald Trump converts his racism into policy, and if given another term in office, he will not only attempt to sell American citizens because he doesn’t like the color of their skin, he will damage the country in unimaginable ways.
For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
Follow Jason Easley on Facebook
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
