Lin-Manuel Miranda to Donald Trump: ‘You’re Going Straight to Hell’
Lin-Manuel Miranda slammed Donald Trump in a series of tweets Saturday morning after the president attacked the mayor of San Juan in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.
“You’re going straight to hell, @realDonaldTrump. No long lines for you. Someone will say, ‘Right this way, sir.’ They’ll clear a path,” the Hamilton creator tweeted in defense of San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz.
On Friday, Cruz criticized the government’s response to Hurricane Maria, “We are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy. So I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell.” Cruz has been sleeping in a shelter as her house was also destroyed in the hurricane.
In response, Trump turned hurricane relief into a partisan issue Saturday morning when he tweeted, “The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.”
Trump continued, “Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.”
Following Trump’s tweets, photos of Cruz, wading in floodwaters up to her waist and holding a megaphone, went viral. At the time of Trump’s tweets, the president was reportedly at his New Jersey golf course.
“She has been working 24/7. You have been GOLFING. You’re going straight to hell. Fastest golf cart you ever took,” Miranda fired back at Trump. “Did you tweet this one from the first hole, 18th hole, or the club? Anyway, it’s a lie. You’re a congenital liar.”
Miranda then directed his 1.7 million followers to the Hispanic Federation, who are among the groups leading the relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
On Friday, Miranda penned an op-ed pleading for help for Puerto Rico, where many members of his family live.
“There are 3.4 million stories on this island, all struggling in the aftermath of this storm, and they need your help,” Miranda wrote. “Puerto Ricans need supplies and resources just as badly as their fellow Americans in Texas and Florida, and this need is magnified by their geographic isolation from the mainland.”