San Juan mayor on Trump's false hurricane claims: 'Shame on you'


San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz on Thursday said President Trump's "lack of respect is appalling," after the president falsely claimed that "Democrats" had inflated the Hurricane Maria death toll. Trump is "delusional, paranoid, and unhinged from any sense of reality," Yulín Cruz said.
Yulín Cruz was responding to Trump's claim that "3,000 people did not die" when Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico last year. A government report last month found that 2,975 people died on the island as a result of the storm. "This is what denial following neglect looks like," she tweeted. "Mr. [President], in the real world people died on your watch."
Trump on Wednesday said that his administration had overcome challenges in their "incredibly successful" response to Hurricane Maria, and that one of those challenges was "a totally incompetent mayor of San Juan." The mayor has long been critical of Trump's response to the disaster.
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Yulín Cruz slammed Trump for calling a supposed Democratic conspiracy to inflate the hurricane's death toll "bad politics," writing, "Damn it: This is NOT about politics this was always about SAVING LIVES."
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Summer Meza has worked at The Week since 2018, serving as a staff writer, a news writer and currently the deputy editor. As a proud news generalist, she edits everything from political punditry and science news to personal finance advice and film reviews. Summer has previously written for Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, covering national politics, transportation and the cannabis industry.
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