Here's the citation for this dumpster fire:

Bernal, Rafael. “Puerto Rico Governor Asks Trump to Consider Statehood.” TheHill, September 19, 2018. https://thehill.com/latino/407494-puerto-rico-governor-asks-trump-to-consider-statehood.

There are so, so many things wrong with this. The territorial governor claims that he has a mandate for statehood with less voter turnout than there was for the Brexit referendum. 72% of Britons purportedly voted on Brexit. Statehood for Puerto Rico barely got 23% turning out to vote. I don't care how lopsided that rump was in voting for statehood the vote was not legitimate in the eyes of any mainland authority.

Puerto Rico is also a bankrupt kleptocracy. FEMA had to request special authority to intervene and take action in Puerto Rico that it has never asked for in any of the 50 states let alone the other territories. That authority just didn't happen to be in FEMA's charter to begin with and the grant was limited to Puerto Rico alone. Under the PROMESA law, an oversight panel continues to try to get the territorial government solvent. The territorial government resists any such measures which according to PROMESA also means it cannot have any request for statehood be considered at this time.

Congress is made of two chambers. The House of Representatives is made up of representatives of people from the states apportioned by population. Non-voting delegates are seated as a courtesy for each of the territories. The Senate represents states and each state has two senators. Currently the path to statehood is blocked for Puerto Rico unless it makes some deep reforms.

The United States gained Puerto Rico as a war prize in the Spanish-American War of 1898. We could, in theory, give up Puerto Rico like we gave up Cuba which was also a war prize from that same war. Since the territorial government in the US Virgin Islands is facing corruption charges too, a cute plan would be to make an offer to the government of the United Kingdom relative to Brexit to pick up Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands to add to its Caribbean dependencies portfolio of lands ruled by the Crown. Puerto Rico and the entire Virgin Islands are located nearby each other after all. Giving up the EU to pick up more of the Caribbean basin as an Atlantic power wouldn't be a bad deal if suggested to the President as a way to take a couple problems off his hands. USVI already drives on the "correct" side of the road for Britons too.

The territorial dependency closest to being able to assume statehood would be Guam probably. Can you find Guam on a map? I can...