Last September, after Hurricane Maria ripped through Puerto Rico, devastating the island and the millions of U.S. citizens who live there, President Donald Trump said almost nothing about the disaster for nearly a week, seeing as he was preoccupied by attacking N.F.L. players for kneeling during the national anthem. When he finally tuned in to the humanitarian crisis, it was to remind Puerto Rico about all the money it owed Wall Street (“must be dealt with”), and to claim, against all evidence to the contrary, that FEMA was doing a great job in the U.S. territory. That pronouncement, of course, was followed by a Twitter attack on the mayor of San Juan for having the audacity to ask for more help from the federal government.

When he actually saw fit to visit Puerto Rico, he tossed rolls of paper towels into a crowd like he was working the T-shirt gun at Madison Square Garden on a Friday night, and told Puerto Ricans that their hurricane wasn’t “a real catastrophe like Katrina,” because the official death count at that point was only around 16. Later, that number would rise to nearly 3,000. So it was a bit surprising to hear the president claim on Tuesday that the government’s response to the disaster was an “incredible, unsung success,” a claim he doubled down on Wednesday morning:

The president’s assessment, of course, is wildly disturbing as it relates to his grasp on reality and his sense of empathy. But it also sends a terrifying, real-time message to the people currently facing the monster Hurricane Florence that guy in charge of relief efforts will consider any situation wherein fewer than 3,000 people die to be a heroic success with literally no room for improvement. Trump’s inability to recognize failure is responsible for some of the greatest physical threats to the country he’s supposed to be in charge of: take the U.S.’s floundering negotiations in North Korea, for example, or Russia’s election-meddling efforts, which are ongoing according to just about everyone but the commander in chief. But in fact, Trump is so full of himself that his administration reportedly did this:

Homeland Security press secretary Tyler Houlton pushed back on the claim, tweeting, “Under no circumstances was any disaster relief funding transferred from @fema to immigration enforcement efforts.” Which we are sure will be a great comfort to the Carolinas!