September 15, 2018

Donald Trump Can’t Stop Attacking Puerto Rico’s Death Toll

In a pair of late night tweets, the president suggests thousands of deaths were fabricated “like magic.”

Lenin Nolly/ZUMA

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Late on Friday night, President Donald Trump continued his baseless public assault on the officially adopted survey saying nearly 3,000 Puerto Rican residents died after Hurricane Maria.

The Washington Post story briefly quoted by the president calls his insistence that the number was inflated “a false claim” and his contention that it was constructed by Democrats as “falsely claiming a conspiracy.”

The president’s attack comes after George Washington University’s Milliken School of Public health issued a statement standing by its research, which was commissioned by the island’s government.

Our results show that Hurricane Maria was a very deadly storm, one that affected the entire island but hit the poor and the elderly the hardest. We are confident that the number—2,975—is the most accurate and unbiased estimate of excess mortality to date.

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