During the 2024 political campaign, pundits tried to declare the political end to the Trump re-election campaign because, at a campaign stop at Madison Square Garden, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked about Puerto Rico being an “island of garbage.”
Hinchcliffe refused to apologize, and RINO Florida Senator Rick Scott, far-left Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned Hinchcliffe, all saying that Puerto Rico was a great tourist destination.
But now the island’s primary tourist destination is covered in oil leaking onto the beaches, and the island’s finances are such a pile of garbage that members of Congress are urging Trump to sever the island from America’s finances.
According to the Associated Press: a mile-long release of fuel into the tourist-friendly waters around San Juan and Vieques is causing authorities to stay out of the water.
The island only has 3.2 million people, the same population as Iowa or Nevada. But it’s debts and liabilities are at least $617 billion, or $192,812 per person on the Caribbean island.
According to an exclusive in DailyMail, Members of Congress are circulating a proposed Executive Order that would renounce U.S. claims to Puerto Rico, encouraging it to become an independent nation, in order to avoid the coming fiscal disaster the island represents.
At least two congressional offices are in possession of a seven-page draft ‘executive order’ on how the U.S. can help the island territory transition to independence.
…
A source familiar with the document’s existence disclosed that it is also in the possession of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) and potentially other Cabinet secretaries.
Staffers for the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee and a staffer for Rep. Tom Kean (R-N.J.) have already held or scheduled meetings about the draft executive order.
The committee has jurisdiction over issues relating to Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories. But committee officials did not reply to a request for comment.
The proposed order appears, the report says, to have been drafted by Congressional offices and third parties seeking secession from the U.S., and there is no indication as of yet that the White House is involved. The intent appears to be to put pressure to allow Puerto Rico to become an independent nation, separated from the U.S.
The details of the proposed order includes an end to birthright-citizenship for children born in Puerto Rico to be United States citizens, and also setting up a fund to give the island $36 billion per year over 20 years as a form of compensation.
Even at these rates, it would still be a net benefit to the United States, saving over half a trillion dollars in liabilities for America.
If implemented, the proposed order would set a 21-month deadline for the termination of birthright citizenship for individuals born in Puerto Rico.
Under the plan, anyone born in Puerto Rico after December 31, 2026, would no longer be eligible for U.S. citizenship by birth. However, those who were already granted U.S. citizenship by virtue of being born on the island before that date would retain their status.
The draft proposal claims that the plan would generate $617.8 billion in savings for the U.S. while equipping Puerto Rico with the financial resources needed to establish economic independence.
According to the document, Washington is projected to allocate $1.37 trillion over the next 50 years to sustain Puerto Rico, in addition to up to $8.6 billion in disaster aid.
If Trump were to approve the measures outlined in the draft, a decades-long transition plan would be set in motion. This would include an annual $36 billion Puerto Rico Transition Fund for the next 20 years to help the island gradually shift toward full independence. The document asserts that this transition would allow Puerto Rico to achieve self-sufficiency while significantly reducing the financial burden on the United States.
Some Puerto Rico journalists on Twitter were skeptical of the DailyMail reporting:
The Daily Mail is reporting that President Trump is being pressured to make Puerto Rico independent to save America $617 billion #muniland. Personally I think this is bunkum & Trump will view PR as critical to US security in the Carribean. The White House does need to address the… pic.twitter.com/5kTpjyiLjm
— Cate Long (@cate_long) March 7, 2025
The island went through a painful economic bankruptcy from 2014 through 2022, as it sought to restructure major public debts, including pension and past payments.
Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States on December 10, 1898, as part of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War. The Spanish-American war lasted four months and began with the explosion of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor. Historians are still divided, but many believe that the Maine exploded either because of an accident onboard or due to U.S. agents planning the explosion to justify the subsequent conflict.
In 1950, two Puerto Rican Nationalist terrorists tried to assassinate President Harry Truman. In their attack, they shot and killed an officer, Leslie Coffelt. The surviving assassin was Oscar Collazo. Truman commuted Collazo’s death sentence to life imprisonment. Then, in 1979, Democrat President Jimmy Carter simply released him from prison, when he returned to Puerto Rico.
Two months ago, conservative activists online were urging the Trump Administration to outright repudiate and renounce all American claims to Puerto Rico.
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