Trump: Maria’s death toll ‘like magic’

WASHINGTON >> As Tropical Storm Florence inundated the Carolinas on Friday, President Donald Trump circled back to his claim that the official death toll from a devastating storm a year earlier in Puerto Rico was inflated and said the number of dead seemed to rise from double digits to 3,000 “like magic.”

Public health experts have estimated that nearly 3,000 perished because of the effects of Hurricane Maria. But Trump, whose efforts to help the island territory recover have been persistently criticized, has repeatedly questioned that number over the last couple of days.

“FIFTY TIMES LAST ORIGINAL NUMBER — NO WAY!” he tweeted Friday.

Trump falsely accused Democrats on Thursday of inflating the Puerto Rican toll to make him “look as bad as possible.” He said just six to 18 people had been reported dead when he visited two weeks after the October 2017 storm and suggested that many had been added later “if a person died for any reason, like old age.”

When Trump visited Puerto Rico, the death toll at the time was indeed 16 people. The number was later raised to 64, but the government then commissioned an independent study to determine how many died because of poststorm conditions. That study — conducted by the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University — estimated 2,975 deaths.

The deaths fell in two categories: direct and indirect. Direct deaths include such fatalities as drownings in a storm surge or being crushed in a windtoppled building. Indirect deaths are harder to count because they can include such things as heart attacks, electrocutions from downed power lines and failure to receive dialysis because the power is out.