Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora recently explained why he avoided a trip to the Trump White House after leading his team to the 2018 World Series title.
During an interview on “The Mayor’s Office” podcast on Wednesday, Cora admitted that he missed meeting with President Trump because he wanted to prioritize his home country of Puerto Rico. When the Red Sox visited the White House in May 2019, Puerto Rico was still recovering from the destruction of Hurricane Maria in 2017, and Cora was unhappy 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 — it’s not that I regret, but I think I should have been clearer — 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, whereas [Puerto Ricans] were still suffering, it was serious. I didn’t feel comfortable doing it.”
Cora says he would have felt “embarrassed” 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 that – but there was still work to be done. And I felt very uncomfortable, like ‘let’s celebrate this at the White House’ while a lot of people were suffering here. People took it as politics No. My thing is sport and my family, isn’t it? subject.”
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The Boston Red Sox defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the World Series in 2018. (PA)
In May 2019, Cora told reporters that the U.S. government had done “some great things in his country” but added that “we still have a long way to go.”
“I’d rather not go. And, you know, be consistent with everything,” Cora said then about not attending the White House visit.
Trump himself declared his hurricane response an “incredible success” in September 2018, during a speech in the Oval Office.
“I think Puerto Rico has been incredibly successful,” Trump said. “The work that FEMA and law enforcement and everyone has done, working with the governor of Puerto Rico, has been, I think, tremendous. I think Puerto Rico has been an incredible, unsung success.”
Cora says he would have felt “embarrassed” 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, including the latter saw its official death toll increase in August 2018, from 64 people initially dead to 2,975.
The updated figure is the result of an independent investigation ordered by the local government, prompting Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello to increase the official figure.
The Trump administration’s efforts in Puerto Rico have faced widespread criticism. But after visiting the island in September 2017, the president said Puerto Ricans were lucky the storm did not cause a disaster comparable to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast in 2005.
