Donald Trump

CT Puerto Rican Community Reacts to Trump's Tweets on Hurricane Death Toll

President Donald Trump’s tweets and comments about the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico are not sitting well with members of the Puerto Rican community in Connecticut.

“I think that Puerto Rico was an incredible unsung success,” President Trump said from the Oval Office.

On Thursday morning, the president sent out two tweets rejecting a thorough review that Hurricane Maria claimed 2,975 lives in Puerto Rico.

“To hear that coming from the highest person in the nation, the president of the United States, it is very disrespectful,” said Jhonathan Rivera, co-founder of Puerto Ricans United in New Haven.

President Trump tweeted “3 thousand people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico” before falsely accusing Democrats of inflating the death tool to make him “look as bad as possible.”

“To me one death is too much,” Daniel Diaz said, “3,000 is extreme, but my problem with this president is that he failed to recognize the crisis that Puerto Rico was going through.”

Diaz is the chairman for Arte, Inc., a New Haven non-profit that helped collect supplies and raised more than $130,000 for hurricane relief on the island.

“The support from the people here in Connecticut has been unbelievable,” said Yesenia Rivera from Connecticut Puerto Rican Agenda.

But Rivera said the president and federal government failed the Puerto Rican population.

“To go there and toss paper towels to the people of Puerto Rico, it’s ridiculous,” she said.

Diaz said Puerto Ricans rebuilding after Maria are resilient.

“What is very difficult for us as Puerto Ricans as taxpayers is to survive the insults from our own president,” he said.

Diaz added he is worried about this hurricane season.

“If that’s how you treat American citizens,” he said, “what’s going to happen now in North Carolina and South Carolina?”

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