President Donald Trump raised the possibility of selling hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico to his Secretary of Homeland Security in late 2017, The New York Times reports. Elaine Duke, a Republican who served as acting head of Homeland Security from July to December 2017, told the Times in an interview, “The president’s initial ideas were more of as a businessman, you know: Can we outsource the electricity? Can we sell the island? You know, or divest of that asset?”
Duke said the idea didn’t come up in a serious way after Trump’s initial proposal. Hurricane Maria ripped through Puerto Rico in September 2017, causing billions of dollars in damages that the island nation is still recovering from.
