In his common practice of denying the veracity of facts he doesn’t like, President Donald Trump is contradicting, without evidence, the Puerto Rican government’s official tally of 2,975 people who died during or as a result of Hurricane Maria.
3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2018
…..This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2018
Trump caused widespread outcry on Tuesday when he called the emergency efforts after Hurricane Maria an “incredible unsung success” despite the thousands of people who died.
The comment was especially clumsy, as Hurricane Florence is currently bearing down on the southeast coast, promising widespread damage and danger.
