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U.S. President Donald Trump said it was Puerto Rico's fault that aid to the island after Hurricane Maria was delayed.
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Trump, who is scheduled to visit the island on Tuesday, said his government was doing an “amazing job.”
On Friday, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz criticized Trump’s administration and asked for more help. But Cruz's call was met with criticism.
“Such poor leadership by the Mayor of San Juan and others in Puerto Rico who are not able to get their workers to help,” Trump said on Twitter.
"They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort."
Trump claimed Cruz was attacking him for partisan reasons.
"Actually, I was asking for help - I wasn’t saying anything nasty about the president,“ said Cruz, who has been living in a shelter after her home was destroyed in the hurricane.
”I am not going to be distracted by small comments, by politics, by petty issues."
The U.S. government recently waived the Jones Act for the island, lifting trade restrictions on foreign ships that are providing aid, at the request of Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello.
At the same time, it will make evacuees sign a promise to pay their airfare in full, adding that authorities will keep the evacuee's passports as collateral, forcing them to "arrange payments as agreed upon via the promissory note."
Hurricane Maria, the most powerful storm to strike Puerto Rico in nearly 90 years, has killed at least 16 people and wiped out the power and communications systems.
It has also made it difficult to get food, water and fuel around the island.
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