Trump falsely claims nearly 3,000 Americans in Puerto Rico 'did not die' (2018)

[TomCADem]

While Republicans try to create a fiction that Biden's response to the Hurricane was inadequate, lets not forget that Trump's strategy of responding to natural disasters is to dismiss them as fake news such as when he tweeted without any evidence, that "3,000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico” and that “this was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible.”

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/13/politics/trump-puerto-rico-death-toll/index.html

Nearly 3,000 people died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. President Donald Trump denied this reality as a hurricane barrels toward the Carolinas.

“3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. 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 said in a tweet Thursday morning as Carolinians prepared to be pummeled by Hurricane Florence.

After Trump received backlash from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers over this false claim, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley released a statement Thursday that said, “As the President said, every death from Hurricane Maria is a horror. Before, during, and after the two massive hurricanes, the President directed the entire Administration to provide unprecedented support to Puerto Rico.”
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Earlier this month, the island’s governor formally raised the death toll from Hurricane Maria to an estimated 2,975 from 64 following a study conducted by researchers at The George Washington University. CNN’s own reporting reflects similar numbers. The university study accounted for Puerto Ricans who succumbed to the stifling heat and other aftereffects of the storm and had not been previously counted in official figures. Much of the US territory was without power for weeks.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/furious-democrats-blast-trump-s-beyond-ridiculous-puerto-rico-death-n909286

Democrats, Puerto Ricans blast Trump's 'beyond ridiculous' Hurricane Maria death toll claims

Trump's tweets referred to an independent report, commissioned by the Puerto Rican government and conducted by George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, that found an estimated 2,975 people died in Puerto Rico in the five months after Hurricane Maria devastated the island last September. The number was adopted as the official death toll by the island's government.
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Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted that "these days even tragedy becomes political."

“3k more Americans died in #PuertoRico after Hurricane than during comparable periods before. Both Fed & local gov made mistakes,” he wrote. “We all need to stop the blame game & focus on recovery, helping those still hurting & fixing the mistakes.”

[orthoclad]

1. Tale of 2 'canes: 3k in Puerto Rico, 10 in cuba.

Maria hit the US. It devastated the US island of Puerto Rico, which is still struggling years later. Government aid was slow, and preparation poor.

Havana took a direct hit from a Cat 5 hurricane. They lost 10 people. US news carried images of busloads of evacuees being taken from Havana in a government-organized operation. The commentary "blamed" the high survival rate on Cuba being "militarized".

[Kid Berwyn]

2. The official hate for the Cuban people is disgusting.

Civil Defense is a good thing, especially when protecting the population from natural disaster (and not war).

[orthoclad]

3. Socialism is organization.

Cuba is poor in consumer goods, but they ALL have medical care and education. The literacy rate there is higher than the US.

Their organization helps them survive. Life is the first freedom.

[TomCADem]

4. Trump administration hampered investigation into delayed Puerto Rico hurricane relief, government watchdog finds

I think the real question is why was Trump's hurricane response in Puerto Rico such a disaster, and it was due in party by Trump dragging his feat on providing aid, because he did not see any reason to help Puerto Rico. This is similar to how Trump had to be convinced to provide emergency wild fire aid to California until he was told that they affected areas were largely Republican rural areas.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/22/politics/puerto-rico-relief-investigation-washington-post/index.html

An investigation into the Trump administration’s delayed hurricane relief aid for Puerto Rico was stymied by a series of roadblocks in obtaining information and testimony, according to findings by a federal watchdog released Thursday.

In a new report, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General explained that its review into the timing of the release of $20 billion in disaster recovery funds in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017 was “hampered” by officials’ refusal to answer questions, as well as delays in conducting interviews and accessing electronic communications.

“While the OIG undertook efforts to mitigate these challenges, the delays and denials of access and refusals to cooperate negatively affected the ability of the OIG to conduct this review,” the report said.

Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson declined to be interviewed unless a department lawyer was present, and investigators ultimately did not obtain his testimony. The report also states investigators were unable to obtain information from several former senior Office of Management and Budget officials related to the office’s decision-making on disaster relief.

[orthoclad]

5. Maria was a worst-case example, but

we see over and over the individualized response to US disasters: single households on their own fleeing fires and floods. Assistance comes later, in the midst of chaos. Was there an organized attempt to evacuate the poor from the 9th Ward before Katrina?

It was obvious that T didn't consider Puerto Ricans to be real people of the US, despite his having contributed to their debt crisis in his biz days.

A lot of vultures saw Maria as opportunity. Naomi Klein writes about this in The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists. Did Trump assist the vultures by withholding aid? I wonder.