‘You better vote for me’: Trump demands Puerto Ricans elect him despite island not getting presidential vote

Florida’s large population from island could play key role in swing state, however

Donald Trump has demanded Puerto Ricans vote for him, despite the island’s residents not being able to cast a ballot in the presidential election.

Mr Trump courted Puerto Rican voters during part of his Make America Great Again rally in Florida on Monday, his first since catching Covid-19.

“I’m not gonna say the best, but I’m just about the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico. You better vote for me, Puerto Rico,” boasted the president.

None of the island’s 3.2 million US citizens has a vote in a presidential election, nor do those in the four other US territories of American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and the US Virgin Islands.

But the Pew Research Center estimates that 20 per cent of all eligible voters in Florida are Latino, and of those 31 per cent identify as Puerto Rican.

According to the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at New York’s Hunter College, there are now more than one million Puerto Ricans living in Florida.

Once Puerto Ricans have left the island and are resident in a US state they can vote in both state and federal elections.

Mr Trump recently picked up the endorsement of Puerto Rico’s governor Wanda Vazquez Garced, who was defeated in the primary to keep a job she was appointed to and will not even be on the ballot in November.

The president was heavily criticised in Puerto Rico for his response to the devastation created by Hurricane Maria in 2017, when he infamously threw rolls of paper towels to a crowd.

Trump also once suggested swapping “dirty” and “poor” Puerto Rico for Greenland, according to Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff.

Just last month the White House announced a $13 billion aid package to help the continued recovery from Hurricane Maria.

The president’s opponent Joe Biden has criticised the aid package as a “political stunt” to win over voters of Puerto Rican heritage.