Two weeks after Hurricane María made direct landfall on Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump arrived waving the magic wand of federal assistance.

He reminded Puerto Ricans that, though they have thrown the US budget “out of whack,” he will cooperate with local officials “to assist those in need, to help save and sustain lives, and to begin the long recovery and rebuilding effort.” After widespread criticism of his leadership and disaster management skills, he claimed that resolving the crisis was just a matter of “sending tremendous amounts of supplies, tremendous amounts of food and water, and we are sending great people to help.”

Eager to benefit from such tremendous promises, local officials laid out the red carpet. The benign hand of American power had finally arrived, eager to help its colonial subjects reconstruct the capitalist utopia it had so altruistically bestowed upon the island’s people.