Donald Trump Blames Hurricane Maria Death Toll On Democrats And “Old Age”

President Donald Trump washed his hands of any responsibility for the nearly 3,000 deaths caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last fall, even blaming Democrats for manipulating the figures to make him look bad.

In two tweets this morning, with Hurricane Florence barreling toward the eastern coast, Trump not only disputed the revised death toll of 2,975 confirmed by a government study, but suggested that everything on the island was just fine when he visited immediately after the storm.

“3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico,” Trump tweeted (see tweets below). “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…”

A second tweet continued: “…..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!”

Actress Mia Farrow was one of the first to twitter-respond to Trump’s reality-shirking tweets: “Your inept response to the catastrophe in Puerto Rico caused the deaths of nearly 3000 American men, women and children. You dismissed the gravity of their predicament and utterly failed in your responsibility as president. This is a stain you must bear for the rest of your life.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted that Trump is “Apparently of the belief that the death toll is about him and not about approximately 3,000 dead American citizens.”

Earlier this week, Trump called his government’s response to the historic Puerto Rican disaster an “unsung success.”