The president tweeted that falsehood on Thursday morning, as Hurricane Florence barreled toward the Carolina coast.
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
A study conducted by George Washington University last month found that 2,975 people in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands died as a result of last year’s massive storm. In the wake of that study, Puerto Rico’s government raised its official Hurricane Maria death toll to the same number; the territory’s official death count was previously only 64. Another study, published in May by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, put the death toll closer to 5,000.
Trump insists these numbers are fake and that the peer-reviewed research is politically motivated. On Thursday, he said the numbers were concocted “by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible.” It’s not the first time Trump has denied the severity of disaster in Puerto Rico. For over a year, he’s insisted that the federal government’s response has been getting “great marks.” That’s true: It’s been getting great marks from the president himself, and almost no one else.