Donald Trump has falsely claimed that 3,000 people did not die in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, and said the number was made up by the Democratic party “to make me look as bad as possible”. Despite significant evidence showing nearly 3,000 people were killed in the devastating storm last year, Trump tweeted that the official death toll was a political scheme, two days after he was sharply criticised for saying the government had an “unsung success” in its response to Maria.

Puerto Rico’s government raised the official death toll from 64 people to 2,975 late last month following the publication of new research by the publication of new research by George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.Though the official death toll was changed in August, reports by other academic institutions and newspapers estimated the death toll was in the thousands as early as December 2017. But Trump contested these findings on Thursday.(theguardian)…[+]