Red Sox manager Alex Cora says he skipped Trump White House visit to show support for Puerto Rico

Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora recently opened up about why he skipped 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 skipped out on meeting 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 wasn’t satisfied with the federal government’s response. 

“One of the things that — it’s not that I regret, but I think I should’ve been more clear — 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 me celebrating something at that stage, while [Puerto Ricans] were still suffering, it was bad. I didn’t feel comfortable doing it.” 

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 do for us is amazing — the funding, all of that — but there was still work to do. And I felt very awkward, like, ‘let’s celebrate this at the White House’ right while a lot of people suffered here. People took it like politics. No. My thing is sports and my family, right? I regret because I wasn’t clear about it.”

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In May 2019, Cora told reporters the U.S. government has done “some things back home that are great,” but added that “we still have a long ways to go.”

“I’d rather not go. And, you know, just be consistent with everything,” Cora said then of skipping the White House visit. 

Trump himself said his response to the hurricane was an “incredible success” in September 2018 while giving remarks at the Oval Office. 

“I think Puerto Rico was incredibly successful,” Trump said. “The job that FEMA and law enforcement and everybody did, working along with the governor in Puerto Rico, I think was tremendous. I think that Puerto Rico was an incredible, unsung success.”

Hurricanes Irma and Maria struck the island in September 2017, the latter of which had its official death toll increased in August 2018 from initially 64 people dead to 2,975.

The updated number came via an independent investigation ordered by the local government, prompting Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello to raise the official figure.

The Trump administration’s efforts in Puerto Rico received widespread criticism. But after visiting the island in September 2017, the president said that Puerto Ricans were fortunate that the storm did not yield a catastrophe akin to the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast in 2005.

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