Mr. Rosselló’s fight may be an uphill battle with a president who has made it clear that he views more federal aid to Puerto Rico as throwing money away. People familiar with Mr. Trump’s thinking said he was skeptical that additional aid would not be used to pay down Puerto Rico’s debt. In Puerto Rico, however, Mr. Trump’s stance is being viewed through the lens of race. In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Rosselló mentioned, unprompted, that Puerto Rico’s population was almost entirely Latino and said that historically, there have been “ethnic undertones” to the treatment of Puerto Ricans by Washington. Julia Keleher, the education secretary, and Héctor M. Pesquera, the public safety secretary, had been among the least popular members of Mr. Rosselló’s government.

Source: New York Times April 02, 2019 18:44 UTC