Donald Trump has falsely claimed that 3,000 people did not die in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, and said the number was made up by the Democratic party “to make me look as bad as possible”.
Despite significant evidence showing nearly 3,000 people were killed in the devastating storm last year, Trump tweeted that the official death toll was a political scheme, two days after he was sharply criticised for saying the government had an “unsung success” in its response to Maria.
Puerto Rico’s government raised the official death toll from 64 people to 2,975 late last month following the publication of new research by the publication of new research by George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Though the official death toll was changed in August, reports by other academic institutions and newspapers estimated the death toll was in the thousands as early as December 2017. But Trump contested these findings on Thursday.
A report published in May by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health said up to 4,600 people were killed and an investigation published in December by the Center for Investigative Journalism found the actual death toll exceeded 1,000 people.
The adjustment of the official death toll followed nearly a year of campaigning by journalists, activists and academics to get the government to officially acknowledge the scale of devastation because 64 people was always considered an underestimate. The George Washington University report said the actual number of excess deaths was estimated to be in the range of 2,658 to 3,290.
Trump’s visit to Puerto Rico in October 2017 was defined by the moment he threw paper towels into a crowd of people as aid agencies and journalists warned of a major humanitarian crisis spanning the island of 3.3 million people.
Maria, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm, caused an island-wide power outage, almost completely knocked out communications including satellite phones and left 80% of the island without access to water in the days following the storm.
There is no indication Trump raised “billions” to help rebuild the island and the government’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has said its response was strained after responding to two other major hurricanes weeks before Maria.