Red Sox manager Alex Cora says he skipped Trump’s White House visit to show support for Puerto Rico
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora recently opened up about why he skipped visiting the Trump White House after leading his team to the 2018 World Cup title.
During an interview on the “Mayor’s Office” podcast Wednesday, Cora admitted he skipped the meeting President Trump because he wanted to give priority to his home country of 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 — not that I regret it, but I think I should have been more clear — was visiting 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 that I was celebrating something at that stage, 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 incredible — the funding, all of that — but there was still work to be done. And I felt very uncomfortable, like, ‘let’s celebrate this in the White House,’ just as a lot of people were suffering here. People understood that. like politics. My thing is sports and my family, right? I’m sorry because I didn’t understand that.”
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The Boston Red Sox defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the 2018 World Series. (AP)
In May 2019, Cora told reporters that the U.S. government had done “some things at home that are great,” but added that “there’s still a long way to go.”
“I’d rather not go. And, you know, just be consistent with everything,” Cora said then, skipping the White House visit.
Trump himself said his hurricane response was an “unbelievable success” in September 2018 during remarks in the Oval Office.
“I think Puerto Rico has been incredibly successful,” Trump said. “The work that FEMA and the police and everybody has done, working together with the governor in Puerto Rico, I think has been tremendous. I think Puerto Rico has been an incredible, unprecedented success.”
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Cora says he would have felt “awkward” celebrating at the White House, given the state of his country at the time. (Photos by Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn)
hurricanes Irma and Maria attacked the island in September 2017. the latter of which the official death toll increased in August 2018 from the initial 64 dead to 2,975.
The updated number came from an independent investigation ordered by the local government, prompting Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello to raise the official number.
The Trump administration’s efforts in Puerto Rico have been met with criticism. But after visiting the island in September 2017, the president said Puerto Ricans were happy the storm did not cause a disaster similar to the devastation Hurricane Katrina wreaked along the Gulf Coast in 2005.
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