
Instead of addressing reports that nearly 5,000 people died on his watch in Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria, Trump was busy tweeting about TV, his campaign crowd size, and Hillary Clinton.

Trump has thoroughly ignored the revelation that nearly 5,000 people died in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria.

Probably because the actual facts prove him flat wrong about the devastation the storm caused.

Instead of addressing the deaths of thousands of American citizens, Trump has spoken about issues like the firing of racist comedian Roseanne Barr, the crowd size at a rally Tuesday night, the ongoing criminal investigation of his campaign, and — of course — Hillary Clinton.


A study from the New England Journal of Medicine provided the damning data that puts an exclamation point on the Trump administration's botched reaction to the storm. The study found that at least 4,645 people died, "more than 70 times the official estimate" of only 64 deaths.

From the start, Trump has insisted that his administration did an "unbelievable" and "incredible" job of responding to the disaster, even after huge swaths of the island remained without power. He even complained about the recovery costs, telling Puerto Ricans — American citizens — that they'd "thrown our budget a little out of whack."

When he finally went to the area, he treated it like a game, throwing paper towels at the waiting and desperate crowd.

The projected death toll now dwarfs Hurricane Katrina, which took the lives of 1,833 people. For years, Trump's fellow Republicans promoted the idea of "Obama's Katrina" regarding everything from housing policy in Chicago to a shortage of flu vaccines. But nothing over President Barack Obama's tenure rose to the level that conservatives seemed to hope for.

Yet Trump has a massive death toll of American citizens on his watch, comparable in scope and horror to Katrina or 9/11. That isn't fake news, and it happened only nine months into his presidency.

But instead of addressing the stunning loss of American lives or his administration's role in the tragedy, Trump instead focused on defending himself and latching on to the big celebrity story of the day.