--- title: Trump Says NFL Tweets Didn't Slow Puerto Rico Response description: Trump said his tweets about the NFL did not distract him from helping Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria. canonical: https://time.com/4957891/donald-trump-nfl-puerto-rico/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-26T19:31:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:36:22.590Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump: My NFL Attacks Didn’t Distract Me From Helping Puerto Rico og:description: "I have plenty of time on my hands." og:url: https://time.com/4957891/donald-trump-nfl-puerto-rico/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt668e9e8453d9fd36/6988df757cdbac0001d5a33e/rajoy-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5472 og:image:height: 3078 og:image:alt: President Trump Holds Joint Press Conference With Prime Minister Of Spain og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump: My NFL Attacks Didn’t Distract Me From Helping Puerto Rico twitter:description: "I have plenty of time on my hands." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt668e9e8453d9fd36/6988df757cdbac0001d5a33e/rajoy-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump: My NFL Attacks Didn’t Distract Me From Helping Puerto Rico > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Sep 26, 2017 7:31 PM UTC  President Donald Trump and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy hold a joint news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House on Sept. 26, 2017 in Washington. President Donald Trump and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy hold a joint news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House on Sept. 26, 2017 in Washington. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Sep 26, 2017 7:31 PM UTC President Trump on Tuesday addressed the controversy he ignited after calling NFL players who kneel during the national anthem [“sons of bitches,”](http://time.com/4954684/donald-trump-nfl-speech-anthem-protests/) claiming his comments did not overshadow plans to to [help Puerto Rico](http://time.com/4956966/how-president-trump-is-handling-puerto-ricos-crisis/), which was devastated by Hurricane Maria. “I wasn’t preoccupied with the NFL, I was ashamed of what was taking place,” Trump said at a joint press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in the Rose Garden. “To me that was a very important moment. I don’t think you can disrespect our country, our flag, our national anthem. To me the NFL situation is a very important situation.” Trump added that he was partly inflamed by the decision to kneel because he had recently seen the suffering of veterans who had sustained loss of limbs fighting for the country, and that kneeling symbolized disrespect for those veterans. He also insisted that the [Puerto Rican government](http://time.com/4957119/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-power-outage-photos/) was pleased with the help it has received from the federal government following the hurricane. 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