Don sez P.R. death toll is Democrat lie

President Trump on Thursday refuted two academic studies that found thousands of people died in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, claiming the Democrats had a inflated the death toll for political gain.

“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 3,000,” Trump tweeted, referring to his only visit to the island in wake of hurricanes Irma and Maria.

“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!”

San Juan Democratic Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who pleaded with Trump for more aid amid the storms, fired back Thursday.

“Mr. Pres in the real world people died on your watch,” she tweeted. “YOUR LACK OF RESPECT IS APPALLING.”

House Democrats echoed the sentiment on their official Twitter account, saying that besides President Trump refusing to acknowledge the thousands who died in the storms, “even worse, Republicans have no interest in holding this administration accountable and ensuring that Congress is prepared to respond to these disasters.”

The President has consistently applauded the response to Hurricane Maria, which battered Puerto Rico last year, despite the steady climb in deaths and revised estimates. Puerto Rican authorities changed Hurricane Maria’s official death toll to 2,975 from 64 following a government-commissioned study earlier this summer.

Electricity was not restored to every customer on the island until only a few weeks ago, and U.S. territory still faces billions in repairs.

FEMA also admitted shortcomings in its response in a report released in July.

“FEMA leadership acknowledged the Agency could have better anticipated that the severity of hurricanes Irma and Maria would cause longterm, significant damage to the territories’ infrastructure,” the report reads.

Despite that, the President called his administration’s work in Puerto Rico an “unsung success” Wednesday and boasted a strong response to recent storms.