‘You just want to make me look bad’

TRUMP: DISPUTES PUERTO RICO HURRICANE DEATH TOLL

Storm Florence hit the US coast of North Carolina yesterday resulting in flooding.

Washington

US President Donald Trump disputed Puerto Rico’s official death toll of 3 000 from hurricanes last year and accused Democrats of inflating the figure that was reached in an independent study.

Trump bristled at criticism of his administration’s handling of the Puerto Rico disaster as Hurricane Florence hit the coast of North Carolina yesterday with heavy rains that forecasters warned would cause catastrophic flooding across a wide swath of the US southeast.

The president said Democrats had inflated the number of dead in Puerto Rico “in order to make me look as bad as possible” but did not provide evidence.

The White House, while describing any death from the hurricane as “a horror,” sought to defend Trump’s handling of the disaster, saying he had “directed the entire administration to provide unprecedented support to Puerto Rico”.

“President Trump was responding to the liberal media and the San Juan mayor who sadly have tried to exploit the devastation by pushing out a constant stream of misinformation and false accusations,” White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley said.

Privately, some White House officials were exasperated with the president. – Reuters