The College Republicans Federation of Puerto Rico has begun a fundraising campaign to finance the cost of the bronze statue of President Donald Trump that would be located in front of the Puerto Rican Capitol.
Melvin Soto Vázquez, vice president of that federation, told the conservative newspaper Daily Caller that the money is collected because the Legislature of Puerto Rico has said it does not have the money to pay for the statue of Trump, which would be placed next to U.S. Ex-Presidents who have visited the Caribbean island when they were in office.
According to the publication, the campaign has raised $ 2,000 this weekend. The goal is to collect $ 45,000.
In 2018, Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz indicated that “there is no budget or assigned anything” for the statue in tribute to Trump. “I do not like Trump very much either, and I do not think there are many Puerto Ricans that sympathizes with him, but there is a law (administrative order) that demands that every president who has visited Puerto Rico be recognized that way, but it is not in plans right now. ”
Trump, who has advocated halting assignments to Puerto Rico to mitigate the disaster caused by Hurricane Maria, was in Puerto Rico on October 3, 2017, two weeks after the hurricane struck the Island.
Then, Trump indicated that the attention to the emergency in Puerto Rico had outdated the federal budget. He also said that in Puerto Rico, contrary to the impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 in Louisiana, no real catastrophe had occurred.
Hurricane Katrina caused about 1,800 deaths. In Puerto Rico, a study of the George Washington University, ordered by the government of Puerto Rico, estimated that 2,995 was the total number of people who died as a result of Hurricane Maria.
