Trump keeps telling the same whopper about Puerto Rico
President Trump has repeatedly claimed that Puerto Rico has already received $91 billion in disaster relief funding.
That's not true, and the White House knows it. But as The Washington Post explains, there seems to be a good reason Trump keeps repeating it.
Trump first reportedly claimed that Puerto Rico had received $91 billion in aid back in March, with the Post saying he dropped the figure in a meeting with GOP senators and questioned why South Carolina only got a fraction of that presumed amount. He's since taken the number public, tweeting it on Monday and repeating it again in a Wednesday night rally.
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After that first reported instance in March, a Post analysis found that only $11.2 billion had actually been spent on Puerto Rico's recovery from devastating hurricanes in late 2017. Another $40.8 billion has been allocated for relief, but hasn't gotten to Puerto Rico yet. The rest of Trump's massive figure comes from totaling these figures with another $50 billion in estimated costs over the next 20 years — a $50 billion that certainly hasn't been guaranteed to get to the island yet.
So while Trump's claim may have some merit, it's incorrect to say that Puerto Rico has gotten a massive $91 billion when it's actually only received about an eighth of that total. The White House actually said it would direct any questions about the $91 billion to the Post's analysis, so read that here.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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