Donald Trump lobs paper towels to residents at a Puerto Rico relief center, October 3, 2017

Donald Trump launches a Twitter rant against Puerto Rico’s leaders, as Senate Democrats call for more aid for the hurricane-stricken island.

Trump’s insults followed the defeat of opposing bills in the Senate on Monday. Democrats held up $13.45 billion in disaster funds, arguing that $600 million for Puerto Rico’s food stamp program is inadequate amid ongoing recovery attempts after Hurricane Maria in September 2017.

Sixty votes were needed for either measure to advance. The vote on the GOP bill was 44-48, while the Democratic legislation failed 46-48.

Republicans also opposed an amendment to the Democrat bill adding aid for Iowa, Nebraska, and other Midwestern states after floods in mid-March.

Food-stamp benefits were cut by 25% in March to 1.3 million Puerto Rico residents, 43% of the island’s population. The Puerto Rican government has had to reduce a supplemental cash benefit that many elderly resident use for necessities such as detergent and toothpaste.

Trump’s Rant

Trump opposes any additional aid to Puerto Rico apart from food stamp allocation, which he reluctantly accepted for passage of the GOP’s disaster relief package. Much of the island, which suffered $90 billion in damage, went for months without electricity and water while Trump threatened to withdraw the operations of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Trump — who declared last week, “Puerto Rico has been taken care of better by Donald Trump than by any living human being” — exploded on Twitter after the votes. He pronounced, The people of Puerto Rico are GREAT, but the politicians are incompetent or corrupt….Their government can’t do anything right, the place is a mess — nothing works.”

He assailed Carmen Yulín Cruz, a target for his vitriol since the hurricane: “Politicians such as the crazed and incompetent Mayor of San Juan have done such a poor job of bringing the Island back to health.”

Yulín Cruz, who initially angered Trump by chiding a slow and disorganized Federal response in autumn 2017, responded: “[Trump] can huff & puff all he wants but he cannot escape the death of 3,000 on his watch.”

Trump has told Senate Republicans, and repeated on Twitter, that Puerto Rico has received $91 billion in aid. In fact, that figure is only an estimate of how much funding the island could receive over time and is more than twice as much as the Federal Government has approved so far.

Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Roselló has called Trump “bully” and threatened to punch him in the mouth. He says food-stamp money is critical, but other federal assistance is necessary, including funds for reconstruction projects and debris removal.

The House legislation includes $849 million in Environmental Protection Agency funding and Federal Emergency Management Agency support of reconstruction projects. The Trump administration says that the EPA funding is “excessive” and that FEMA money would go to projects unrelated to the hurricane. It initially opposed emergency food stamp aid as “excessive and unnecessary”.