Trump dismisses brown lives, praises Puerto Rico response ahead of Hurricane Florence

By 
·September 12, 2018
In this satellite image provided by U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Hurricane Florence churns through the Atlantic Ocean toward the U.S. East Coast on September 12, 2018. Florence slowed its approach to the U.S. today and was forecast to turn south, stalling along the North Carolina and South Carolina coast and bringing with it torrential rain, high winds and a dangerous storm surge tomorrow through Saturday. (Photo by NOAA via Getty Images)

In this satellite image provided by U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Hurricane Florence churns through the Atlantic Ocean toward the U.S. East Coast on September 12, 2018. Florence slowed its approach to the U.S. today and was forecast to turn south, stalling along the North Carolina and South Carolina coast and bringing with it torrential rain, high winds and a dangerous storm surge tomorrow through Saturday. (Photo by NOAA via Getty Images)

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As the Carolina coastlines brace for Hurricane Florence, Donald Trump seized the moment to praise his administration’s response last year to Hurricane Maria, which according to CNN had a death toll of nearly 3,000 people in Puerto Rico. But on Tuesday, he called it an “unsung success.”

READ MORE: Hurricane’s death toll in Puerto Rico estimated at nearly 3,000

On Wednesday morning, he was at it again, writing the following tweet:

Puerto Rico’s governor raised the U.S. territory’s official death toll from Hurricane Maria from 64 to 2,975 on Tuesday after an independent study found that the number of people who succumbed in the desperate, sweltering aftermath had been severely undercounted.

The new estimate of nearly 3,000 dead in the six months after Maria devastated the island in September 2017 and knocked out the entire electrical grid was made by researchers with the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.

Trump attempted to re-write the narrative that the US had failed to deliver resources and aid in time to those affected.

On Tuesday Trump said the said the island’s electric grid had been already “in bad shape.”

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz criticized Trump for trying to give himself credit.

Trump, joined by Homeland Security Trump on Tuesday, alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long, on Tuesday offered alternative facts saying that FEMA and law enforcement had “an incredible, unsung success.”

READ MORE: ‘I’m Mexican’: Amber Guyger’s family denies racism claims

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, criticized Trump for his shortcomings and blamed him for failing to assist Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

“In a humanitarian crisis, you should not be grading yourself. You should not be just having a parade of self-accolades. You should never be content with everything we did. I’m not content with everything I did, I should have done more. We should all have done more,” Cruz told CNN’s Anderson Cooper later Tuesday evening.

She continued, “But the President continues to refuse to acknowledge his responsibility, and the problem is that if he didn’t acknowledge it in Puerto Rico, God bless the people of South Carolina and the people of North Carolina.”

A category storm Florence is making its way toward the Carolinas and those states have declared a state of emergency.

Cruz contacted North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Wilmington, North Carolina, Mayor Bill Saffo to give them a heads up on what NOT to expect with Trump, “just (let) them know, we know how it feels.”

“We know how much they’re going to have ahead of them,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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