President Trump disputed a report Thursday estimating that the number of Puerto Ricans who died as a result of Hurricane Maria numbers in the thousands.
“3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico,” the president said on Twitter. “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.”
He added, “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!”
[Also read: San Juan mayor: ‘God help us all’ if Trump thinks response to Hurricane Maria was a success]
The estimate to which he is referring comes from an independent report commissioned by the government of Puerto Rico, which had initially put the death toll at 64. The report, which was produced by researchers at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, concluded that 2,975 people had died as a result of Maria making landfall on the U.S. territory.
The study places a great deal of blame on the shoulders of Puerto Rico’s territorial officials, who come across as grossly inept.
“Key leader interview respondents perceived the death count to be much higher, and held viewpoints that government leadership was disconnected from the realities of Puerto Rican communities, that there was not transparency in reporting, that information was intentionally withheld to evade blame and that adequate systems were not in place to track the death count,” it reads.
Feel free to read more about the study’s methodology here, which includes explanations for its use of “predicted mortality” and “observed mortality” numbers, it employment of a “census scenario” and a “displacement scenario,” as well as its process of evaluating death certificates.
Put aside for a moment the fact that Trump just made the Puerto Rico disaster about himself. Put aside his cavalier attitude towards death. Put aside for a moment the fact that Trump provides no evidence whatsoever that Democrats are responsible for the study’s findings.
Let’s marvel for a moment at the president’s massive self-own.
Prior to his tweets, the estimated death toll in Puerto Rico was a relatively isolated news story, boosted by very specific political and news media circles.
But now that Trump has come barging in with these groundless accusations and denials, the estimated death toll is a much bigger national story that looks very bad for Trump. Thanks to Trump, everyone will hear about this number from every newspaper, online news publication, cable news, network news program, etc. If the president’s hope was to put this hurricane estimate to bed, his tweets will accomplish the exact opposite.
In the words of MSNBC contributor Josh Barro, “The fraction of the country that knows more Americans died from Maria than Katrina is about to skyrocket.”
