Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora recently opened up about why he skipped a trip to Trump’s White House after leading his team to the 2018 World Series title.
During an interview on “The Mayor’s Office” podcast Wednesday, Cora admitted he skipped meeting with President Trump because he wanted to prioritize his native Puerto Rico. When the Red Sox visited the White House in May 2019, Puerto Rico was still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017, and Cora was not satisfied with the federal government’s response.
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Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora was born in Puerto Rico. (Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports)
“One of the things that — it’s not that I regret, but I think I should have been more ready — it was a visit to the White House,” Cora said. “I have nothing against the president at that moment. It was Donald Trump at that moment, President Trump, but I felt like I was celebrating something at that moment, while [Puerto Ricans] still suffering, it was bad. I didn’t feel comfortable doing that.”
Cora says he would have felt “awkward” celebrating at the White House given the state of his country at the time.
“We are part of the United States,” he continued. “What they’re doing for us is great — the funding, all of this — but there was still work to be done. And I felt very awkward, like, ‘let’s celebrate this in the White House,’ while a lot of people were suffering here. People took it as politics. No. My thing is sports and my family, right, because I didn’t realize that.
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The Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the 2018 World Series. (AP)
In May 2019, Cora told reporters that the US government has done “some things at home that are great,” but added that “we still have a long way to go.”
“I’d rather not go. And you know, just be consistent with everything,” Cora said then about skipping the visit from the White House.
Trump himself said his response to the hurricane was an “incredible success” in September 2018 while giving remarks in the Oval Office.
“I think Puerto Rico was incredibly successful,” Trump said. “The job that FEMA and law enforcement and everybody else did, working with the governor of Puerto Rico, I think was tremendous. I think Puerto Rico was an incredible, unsung success.”
Cora says he would have felt “awkward” celebrating at the White House given the state of his country at the time. (Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images)
Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the island in September 2017, of which the latter had its official death toll rise in August 2018 from an initial 64 dead to 2,975.
The updated number came via an independent study commissioned by the local government, prompting Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello to raise the official figure.
The Trump administration’s efforts in Puerto Rico drew widespread criticism. But after visiting the island in September 2017, the president said Puerto Ricans were lucky the storm did not produce a disaster similar to the havoc Hurricane Katrina wreaked along the Gulf Coast in 2005.
