Former senior Trump administration official Miles Taylor, who now endorses Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, told MSNBC anchor Hallie Jackson that President Donald Trump wanted to trade “dirty” Puerto Rico for Greenland.
Jackson asked Taylor if there was anything particularly disturbing that he remembered from working on the Trump administration — prompting the senior official to recount the president’s comments on Puerto Rico.
“We could probably go on for days about that,” Taylor said of the countless memories he has of Trump’s “disturbing” claims — before accusing the president of a shocking comment ahead of his trip to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
“I remember before we went, the president said something, and your viewers are going to be somewhat familiar with this, the president talked before about wanting to purchase Greenland,” Taylor added. “But one time before we went down, he told us not only did he want to purchase Greenland, he actually said he wanted to see if we could sell Puerto Rico, could we swap Puerto Rico for Greenland because, in his words, Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor.”
Taylor noted that Puerto Ricans are American and faulted the president for talking about American people this way — adding that it was shocking that Trump would want to trade in a U.S. territory for a foreign country.
Jackson asked Taylor if the comment could have been a joke but Taylor
“On multiple occasions, the president expressed interest in buying Greenland,” Taylor added. “And I’ll go even further about Puerto Rico, the president expressed deep animus towards the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes. These are people who are recovering from the worst disaster of their lifetimes. He is their president. He should be standing by them.”
Watch above, via MSNBC.