Trump held a press conference yesterday to boast about how effective he has been in aiding the people of Puerto Rico, who are American citizens.

The news coverage of Puerto Rico tells a different story.

Large parts of the island are without power. Some parts of the island will be without electricity for months. People need the basic necessities of life. No doubt Trump thinks this is “fake news” and that he is the best president ever, ever, ever, and he deserves our thanks.

Churches, synagogues, and mosques will be collecting supplies for the people of Puerto Rico this weekend. But that will not be enough. It won’t turn the power back on.

Why doesn’t Trump send in the Army Corps of Engineers to restore power throughout the island?

Why doesn’t he send tankers and ships loaded with food and water, with diapers and cleaning supplies, with medical supplies?

Why doesn’t he stop bragging and take action to save lives?

People will die because of his inaction and indifference.

Is he indifferent because Puerto Ricans speak Spanish?

Puerto Ricans are Americans. They deserve the aid and support of the federal government to pull through this emergency.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote an article probing Trump’s indifference to Puerto Rico and comparing it to his response to the hurricane damage in Texas and Florida:

Milbank wrote:

Suppose that the entire San Diego metropolitan area had lost electrical power, and it wouldn’t be restored for months.

Or, suppose that most of the ports, roads and cellular towers in the Seattle metropolitan area had been destroyed, and a major dam had failed.

Or, that most of the homes in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota were either damaged or destroyed in one day.

Or, that the combined populations of New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont had seen much of their forests and agricultural land wiped out.

Or, that the residents of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming — combined — had lost access to food and clean water, leaving them vulnerable to cholera. And imagine that overflowing hospitals, without power, had no capacity to deal with an outbreak.

Now, imagine that in response to any of these scenarios, the president of the United States variously ignored the plight of the affected Americans (in all of the above cases about 3.4 million people, give or take), blamed them for their own troubles and provided inadequate help. This is precisely what is happening right now to the 3.4 million U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico, an island territory more populous than about 20 states. Hurricane Maria essentially wiped out these Americans’ ports, roads, electricity, communications, water supply and crops and many homes. Yet, a week after the storm, the response from the American mainland has been paltry.

There is no rush, as there was after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, to approve the emergency funds that Puerto Rico will surely need. There has been no massive movement of military personnel and equipment to Puerto Rico: no aircraft carrier (one was sent to the Florida Keys in response to Hurricane Irma), no hospital ship (finally on Tuesday afternoon the Navy said it was sending one). The Post’s Joel Achenbach, Dan Lamothe and Alex Horton called the three Navy amphibious ships dispatched to Puerto Rico “a modest fleet given the scale of the crisis.”

President Trump, so visible when Harvey and Irma hit, all but ignored the devastation that Maria brought to Puerto Rico, devoting more attention to respect for the flag at NFL games. When he did turn his focus to Puerto Rico on Monday, it was to say that the island “was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt” and that its “old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars . . . owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with.”

Two Trump Cabinet members, Energy Secretary Rick Perry (who traveled with Trump to Texas and Florida after hurricanes there) and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, made a joint public appearance Monday but didn’t even mention Puerto Rico. And the Trump administration said it would not assist Puerto Rico by waiving the Jones Act, which restricts the use of foreign cargo ships, after waiving the act in response to Harvey and Irma.

Why didn’t Trump care?