Trump Called ‘An International Disgrace’ After Claiming ‘3,000 People Did Not Die’ in Puerto Rico

By Elizabeth Preza

In a stunning tweet on Thursday, Donald Trump refuted reports that nearly 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria in 2017.

“[Three thousand] people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico,” Trump wrote. “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…”

“….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,” Trump claimed. “If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/statuses/1040217897703026689

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/statuses/1040220855400386560

In October 2017, Trump touted the low death toll in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, which at the time consisted of only 16 certified deaths. In August 2018, following a study from George Washington University, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló revised the official death toll to 2,975.

The internet on Thursday slammed Trump for caring more about his ego than the facts.

A Hurricane Denier. https://t.co/zTa5qr1IN3

— Dana Milbank (@Milbank) September 13, 2018

Trump is now disputing the death figures in Puerto Rico…by the thousands. This man has to get out of office ASAP.

— deray (@deray) September 13, 2018

The president is going to do the Monty Python parrot sketch with Puerto Rico. This isn’t likely to end well. https://t.co/br8HEzXl4z

— Dave Levinthal (@davelevinthal) September 13, 2018

Is there a word for the 10 minutes after the jaw-dropping tweet that has an ellipsis at the end of it, while you're waiting for/dreading the yet-to-be posted next tweet? https://t.co/rPtN5mlH2C

— Steven Shepard (@POLITICO_Steve) September 13, 2018

Somewhere, White House aides are screaming into pillows https://t.co/5EmocBdnoO

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 13, 2018

Also: He appears to be floating a conspiracy that the death toll is being artificially inflated https://t.co/qHX27XWfvm

— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) September 13, 2018

This should be a comfort to the people who lost family members. Now they know they can blame Thanos or the rapture or anything other than Trump.

Remember kids, the buck stops *scans room looking for someone to blame* THAT GUY! pic.twitter.com/f17fOtrCRs

— A Jason Tabrys (@jtabrys) September 13, 2018

“Truth isn’t truth,” Puerto Rico hurricane edition https://t.co/JbIHKIqu9E

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) September 13, 2018

wow https://t.co/5MhVpcokon

— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) September 13, 2018

President takes issue with Puerto Rico death count https://t.co/jUItdFgMoc

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) September 13, 2018

#TheBuckStopsThere => https://t.co/2F5wxidZpT

— David M. Drucker (@DavidMDrucker) September 13, 2018

It's too early for this shit, Donnie.

— ??Alisha Grauso?? (@AlishaGrauso) September 13, 2018

This is an extraordinary tweet and accusation https://t.co/ELqlfiGDMa

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) September 13, 2018

Reposted with permission from our media associate AlterNet.