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!"
3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit… https://t.co/6gATFkCMeH— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)1536842247.0
.....This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Bil… https://t.co/sd4kS7qtcY— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)1536842952.0
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 (@Dana Milbank)1536842470.0
Trump is now disputing the death figures in Puerto Rico...by the thousands. This man has to get out of office ASAP.— deray (@deray)1536842826.0
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 (@Dave Levinthal)1536842410.0
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… https://t.co/k9MnJvff99— Steven Shepard (@Steven Shepard)1536842538.0
Somewhere, White House aides are screaming into pillows https://t.co/5EmocBdnoO— Maggie Haberman (@Maggie Haberman)1536842344.0
Also: He appears to be floating a conspiracy that the death toll is being artificially inflated https://t.co/qHX27XWfvm— Chris Cillizza (@Chris Cillizza)1536842335.0
This should be a comfort to the people who lost family members. Now they know they can blame Thanos or the rapture… https://t.co/gwL2W79TBU— A Jason Tabrys (@A Jason Tabrys)1536842707.0
“Truth isn’t truth,” Puerto Rico hurricane edition https://t.co/JbIHKIqu9E— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@Edward-Isaac Dovere)1536842310.0
wow https://t.co/5MhVpcokon— Jordan Fabian (@Jordan Fabian)1536842420.0
President takes issue with Puerto Rico death count https://t.co/jUItdFgMoc— Philip Rucker (@Philip Rucker)1536842461.0
#TheBuckStopsThere => https://t.co/2F5wxidZpT— David M. Drucker (@David M. Drucker)1536842377.0
@realDonaldTrump It's too early for this shit, Donnie.— Alisha Grauso (@Alisha Grauso)1536842677.0
This is an extraordinary tweet and accusation https://t.co/ELqlfiGDMa— Jonathan Lemire (@Jonathan Lemire)1536843120.0
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