As Puerto Rico braced for a hurricane, President Trump called the U.S. territory as one of the “most corrupt places on earth” while trying to defend his administration’s past disaster relief efforts.

Said Trump: “Their political system is broken and their politicians are either Incompetent or Corrupt. Congress approved Billions of Dollars last time, more than anyplace else has ever gotten, and it is sent to Crooked Pols. No good!”

He added in another tweet: “And by the way, I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to Puerto Rico!”

Jonathan Chait: “Trump has already used his pardon power liberally to reward political allies, pardoning right-wing heroes like Joe Arpaio, Conrad Black, and Dinesh D’Souza. Last spring, CNN reported that Rudy Giuliani’s lawyer dangled a pardon in front of Michael Cohen if he would perjure himself to protect Trump. The implicit (or possibly explicit) promise of a pardon has likely encouraged Roger Stone and Paul Manafaort — the two Trump agents in most direct contact with Russia’s election operation — to withhold cooperation from the Mueller probe, thereby permitting Trump’s campaign to avoid conspiracy charges.”

“But the presidential pardon’s truly fearsome power is its potential to not only protect past crimes but to enable new ones. The pardon authority is a kind of wormhole in the Constitution that opens up absolute impunity from the law for the president and his supporters. Once he has crossed this threshold unpunished, every subsequent violation will just be a matter of detail.”

Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis speaks out for the first time since resigning his post in a Wall Street Journal essay:

“Using every skill I had learned during my decades as a Marine, I did as well as I could for as long as I could. When my concrete solutions and strategic advice, especially keeping faith with our allies, no longer resonated, it was time to resign, despite the limitless joy I felt serving alongside our troops in defense of our Constitution.”

“Unlike in the past, where we were unified and drew in allies, currently our own commons seems to be breaking apart. What concerns me most as a military man is not our external adversaries; it is our internal divisiveness. We are dividing into hostile tribes cheering against each other, fueled by emotion and a mutual disdain that jeopardizes our future, instead of rediscovering our common ground and finding solutions.”