Trump's Not-So-Good Speech in Puerto Rico

Donald Trump at Puerto Rico Briefing

Commentators often note that there seem to be two Donald Trumps: the presidential, effective Donald Trump who delivers carefully-scripted speeches on important subjects, and the wild Donald Trump, who speaks off-the-cuff, often giving a bad impression. Readers of this blog have seen several posts about the effective, presidential Donald Trump. However, the off-the-cuff Donald Trump spoke at the Luis Muñiz Air National Guard Base in Puerto Rico on October 3, 2017 during a briefing about Hurricane Maria relief efforts, several days after Maria had devastated the island. President Trump had been criticized, rightly or wrongly, for making a weak response to Puerto Rico's disaster. Mr. Trump's rambling presentation expressed little sympathy for the millions of hurricane victims; instead, Mr. Trump praised himself and various federal government officials. This speech received much criticism. Was this very defensive speech a failure of audience adaptation? That depends on what audience Trump was addressing.

The speaker's true audience is not always the group standing in front of the speaker. In their book The New Rhetoric, the Belgian philosophers Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca explain that the audience exists in the mind of the speaker. Although that seems a little exotic, their idea is that the speaker may intend to reach a larger, smaller, or different audience than the people who are in front of him or her at the moment. A speaker might intend to reach only a fraction of the people in the room. A visionary speaker might be speaking in the present, but with an eye toward the future. In the case of Mr. Trump's Puerto Rico speech, Mr. Trump may have had in mind a group of future voters, which would not include Puerto Rico's residents, who cannot vote in national elections and probably would not support him anyway.

So, let us look at what Mr. Trump said, and compared it against different audiences. Let us keep in mind that much of Mr. Trump's support in the 2016 election came from White voters who were concerned about immigration. Let us also note that many Americans were not aware that Puerto Rico is American territory and that Puerto Ricans are United States citizens. Therefore, he may not have felt that gaining support from Puerto Rico was important in terms of his own political base.

Brock Long, FEMA

Mr. Trump began by saying that, "It was a great trip and a beautiful place. I've been to Puerto Rico many times as, I think, most of you have known. And I've always loved it." That sounded complementary, although talking about "a great trip" in the wake of a major storm seemed a bit off-topic. His very next point was to praise FEMA Administrator Brock Long, who was in charge of the relief effort. He awarded Mr. Long an "A+" for his earlier work, and said that his work in Puerto Rico was "unbelievable." He also complimented Elaine Duke, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, and White House Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert. He continued to praise General Jeffrey Buchanan, who oversaw the military's relief efforts. He also praised Congressional Representative Jenniffer González-Colón– not for her work, but because "she was saying such nice things about all of the people that have worked so hard." He did not praise or mention San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, with whom he has been having a media conflict about the relief effort's slow pace.

After praising various other relief officials, Trump complained (jokingly? Or not?) that you've thrown our budget a little out of whack because we've spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico, and that's fine. We've saved a lot of lives." He compared Hurricane Maria to "a real catastrophe like Katrina" and said – almost reassuringly – that only 16 people had died so far. Maria wasn't a "real disaster?" He then praised the Navy and Air Force. He stopped for a minute to talk about the F-35 fighter bomber, and asked an Air Force representative about the F-35. He bragged about negotiating a lower price for the F-35. How did that get into a speech about Hurricane Maria? He praised the Coast Guard, and, after being prompted, also praised Customs and Border Protection. Representatives of those groups interspersed brief talks during the President's presentation.

One obvious criticism of Mr. Trump's speech is that he said very little to comfort the people of Puerto Rico. Complaining about the expense, however, jokingly, surely gave Puerto Ricans a bad impression. He said nothing to offer improved relief efforts. To promise improvement would be to admit that something was wrong, and this speech's purpose was to prove that nothing was wrong.

At the same time, the speech may have played well to Mr. Trump's base voters. If Mr. Trump's main supporters cared less about Puerto Rico than they did about Texas and Florida, a weak relief effort might bother them less. Thus, if Mr. Trump's audience – his real audience – consisted of the people of Puerto Rico – this speech failed. If Mr. Trump's real audience consisted of his supporters back home, who do not seem to enjoy hearing Mr. Trump being criticized, then the speech, which responded to criticism, was right on target – a bit defensive, but right on target.