Today I’d like to highlight one of Puerto Rico’s many horrible governors, for the reason that he reminds me so much of Trump. When I saw the orange man tell people to ingest bleach and later heard, advisors were trying to stop him from holding press conferences, I was struck by how similar this was to E. Montgomery Riley (AKA Moncho Reyes).

Riley was an assistant postmaster in KS before he was appointed as governor of Puerto Rico by Warren G. Harding. The problems were immediate. He was sworn in, in Kansas and didn’t arrive in Puerto Rico until months later, supposedly due to some “personal issues he had to attend to”.

When Riley arrived in Puerto Rico, he gave a speech saying there was no room for any other flag other than the American flag, that him being appointed to governor was a great choice because the salary was $5,400 and other plain stupid and racist remarks. He also called Puerto Rico “these islands”, sound like anyone we know?

In his long letters to Pres. Harding he said “Porto Ricans are children, cannot be trusted”. He also complained about his own staff “the commissioner of education is a half-blooded negro, the kind of man I cannot associate with”. He also wanted to reinstate the death penalty in Puerto Rico to “maintain order among half-bloods and children (Nelson, 60)”.

Riley spent half his time outside of Puerto Rico, (sound like someone). He also appointed family members and friends to important and high paid positions in the government in Puerto Rico (again, Trump’s behavior as well). He omitted these people from his official list of appointments in 1920-21.

In 1922 a grand jury in San Juan brought charges against secretary John Hull, for “misuse of public funds, for private purposes” (similar to when the Trump family stole from their own charity). Riley heard of the investigation and fired DA Ramon Diaz Collazo before he could file the indictment. When he protested he was being illegally removed Riley had him forcefully removed. When the case was given to grand jury Salvador Menstre, Riley attempted to get him fired, however he wasn’t. Alfonso Lastra Charriez, vice Pres, of the PR House of Representatives, said “If revolution doesn’t come soon, we shall die of nausea at contact with so much filth. I accuse E Montgomery Riley, Gov. of Porto Rico and J.R. Hull of obtaining money belonging to the people of Porto Rico for their own benefit, using criminal means, I accuse them of being thieves, (Nelson, 61)”.

Shortly after this the governor was advised to stop making public speeches. Congressman Horace Mann Towner told Pres. Harding, Riley’s behavior was “most embarrassing”. Soon the whole island was calling Riley “Moncho Reyes”, a Caribbean slang term that means a complete idiot. There were songs and plays made to laugh at him and school children drew cartoons of him and the newspapers wrote articles highlighting his stupidity as well.

On February 16, 1923 Riley resigned after 2 years as governor and thief of Puerto Rico. That is the story of Moncho Reyes, Puerto Rico’s governor Trump.