It could be that. And in Trump’s case I wouldn’t be surprised.
But if you read the original tweets boils down to:
“Why is Puerto Rico devastated, while Florida and Texas are OKish? Because Money.”
And that is very true. He said the problem of debts needed to be sorted out. Also true. He did not say “the debts need to be paid first”. He might mean it that way. And him being Trump it wouldn’t surprise me if he did. But he did not write it that way. You can’t attack someone on what you think they meant to write. Well you can obviously, but I just think it’s not smart to do so, because it gives Trump supporters a valid reason to dismiss you.
Yes, if the US hadn’t spent a century “brutalizing” PR they’d for sure be a model of democracy and wealth like other long independent Caribbean nations such as…DR, Haiti, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua? Yes I know there’s US intervention history all over the area, but PR has had some distinct advantages by being a part of the US, political stability and unencumbered immigration not least. There’s half again as many Puerto Ricans on the mainland as are on the island.
According to Snopes, it’s unclear if anyone is actually trying to apply it.
And sure enough the enabling legislation doesn’t seem to apply to this situation:
The practice of charging evacuated Americans can be documented back to at least August 1944 [PDF]. However, U.S. Code Title 22, Chapter 38, Section 2671 pertains to the return of Americans citizens from places outside the United States, not transport of American citizens to other American territories or states. (Puerto Ricans are American citizens.)
