Story highlights Trump said he thought the military "really shouldn't have to be" distributing food in Puerto Rico

He said there were "massive" amounts of food and water on the island

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump defended the federal government's response to the disaster in Puerto Rico, and contended difficulty accessing food and water was due to shortcomings on local distribution.

"We have delivered tremendous amounts of water, and then what you have to do is you have to have distribution of the water by the people on the island," Trump said at a news conference on Monday from the White House.

Trump noted the military is on the ground helping with distribution efforts -- which he argued shouldn't be their job.

"What we've done is we now actually have military distributing food, something that really they shouldn't have to be doing," Trump said.

He said there are plenty of supplies in Puerto Rico, but the local distribution chains need to work to get them where they are needed.

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