By The Star Staff

Former President Donald Trump criticized the Biden administration’s treatment of Puerto Rico and vowed that if he is reelected president, he will stand by “the hardworking American Patriots, particularly the resilient people of Puerto Rico.”

“The extreme lengths the Biden Administration will go to, to push Americans into poverty using woke and corrupt ideals is worse than any American could have imagined,” Trump said in a letter obtained by the STAR. “While Joe has been touting the success of ‘Bidenomics,’ his Administration’s terrible policies have pushed many Puerto Ricans, for the first time in their lives, to the brink of financial ruin and inevitable poverty. Working together, I am confident that we will return to a Nation of peace, prosperity, and unity.”

Trump’s remarks made in the letter, dated March 14, were in response to a show of support from the Puerto Rico Republican Assembly, a group comprising local conservatives that is separate from the island Republican Party Committee.

The letter sent to the group’s leader, Armando Santos, was in response to one sent by the Puerto Rico Republican Assembly letting Trump know that he has support in Puerto Rico and to learn of his views about Puerto Rico, pro-statehood lawyer Gregorio Igartúa said.

“It was an exchange gesture to learn about his views on Puerto Rico,” Igartúa said.

In the letter, however, Trump thanks the group for its letter and for its steadfast support.

“It means a great deal to me,” the former president said. “May God Bless you and the wonderful people of Puerto Rico.”

The letter appears to reflect a change from Trump’s past views about Puerto Rico. It was in 2020 when Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief of staff under Trump, said that the then-president asked him and other officials in 2018 whether the U.S. could swap Greenland for Puerto Rico. The exchange, Taylor said, happened in August 2018 before DHS officials went on a disaster recovery trip to the island after it had been devastated by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.

However, in 2021 Trump approved for Puerto Rico nearly $13 billion in federal disaster funding to repair the island’s electrical and education infrastructure three years after Hurricane Maria struck.