Trumps biggest Puerto Rican critic will be in the audience for the State of the Union

On Monday morning, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) announced that she is bringing Carmen Cruz, the Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, to President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address.

Link to tweet

Cruz has become the unexpected face of the devastated, and still resilient territory of Puerto Rico, which suffered an indirect hit from Hurricane Irma and a direct hit from Hurricane Maria last summer.

Her position was elevated even more after the President of the United States, whose role after disasters is normally to lift vulnerable people up and inspire the world to come to their aid, picked an immature fight with her on Twitter.

After Cruz took to the airwaves to plead directly with Trump to ensure federal disaster recovery was working effectively in the face of a humanitarian crisis she said could get “close to a genocide,” Trump attacked her on Twitter. He said she had “poor leadership” and accused Puerto Ricans of wanting “everything to be done for them.” He then patted himself on the back for his handling of the disaster. Cruz responded to Trump with images of Puerto Ricans working to rebuild, saying: “The goal is one: saving lives. This is the time to show our ‘true colors’. We cannot be distracted by anything else.”

https://thinkprogress.org/carmen-cruz-guest-trumps-first-sotu-8c732fd1f4dc/