Puerto Rico Citizenship

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." -- Thomas Gray, 1742

   Surprise! The president seems to have become aware that the people of Puerto Rico are American citizens -- all 3.5 million of them. And now he is taking credit for the "wonderful, magnificent, outstanding job" that U.S. aid agencies and the military are doing to help the people of that U.S. territory recover from hurricane damage -- two storms in as many weeks.
   Perhaps it was the repeated phrasing by television newscasters referring to Puerto Rico as a U.S. territory and its people as Americans, plus an Internet posting by Hillary Clinton calling for a U.S. hospital ship to be dispatched to the island to help. Or maybe he listened to some of his advisors, or the governor of Puerto Rico, or the mayor of San Juan, or the Puerto Rico delegate to the House of Representatives (non-voting) to convince him that Puerto Ricans are as equal in citizenship status as the people of Houston, or Florida, or Alabama, or even New Jersey, all of which were hard hit by hurricanes and immediately got federal aid to help in the recovery effort.
   Do you suppose he just didn't know that Puerto Rico is part of America, and has been since shortly after the Spanish-American War of 1898? Or maybe he didn't care. He did know this, however: Puerto Rico "is an island, in the middle of the ocean, and it's hard to get trucks to drive there."
   Duh!
   Or maybe he read a report in the New York Times citing a survey that showed only 37 percent of American adults age 18 to 29 knew that Puerto Rico is part of the U.S. Not likely, since he doesn't read "failing, fake news" publications that don't agree with everything he says and does.
   In any case, he seems to have recovered from this bout of ignorance enough to order a U.S. Navy hospital ship to go to the island to help. It only took three or four days after the hurricane hit to get around to this, and it will take another four or five days for the ship to get there.
   Perhaps he felt it wouldn't matter, since they could not have voted for him anyway. News flash! If they had a residency in one of the 50 states, they could have. Puerto Rico is not (yet) a state, but its voters do send delegates to national party conventions where presidential candidates are selected. Many do have families on the mainland. And since the island is now virtually destroyed, many of its people -- American citizens all -- will move to one of the 50 states, establish residency, and vote in coming elections.
   Word gets around.
   All of which raises these two questions: Was the president's delay in mentioning the tragedy and ordering government assistance a lack of knowledge of Puerto Rico's political connection to the United States, or a product of anti-Hispanic bias, or both?