--- title: Puerto Rico: Donald Trump Praises Low Reported Death Toll description: President Trump praised officials for the disaster relief effort in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, noting that the death toll was relatively low in comparison... canonical: https://time.com/4967645/donald-trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-katrina/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-03T18:42:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:55:12.500Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Says Hurricane Maria Was Not 'a Real Catastrophe Like Hurricane Katrina' og:description: "Sixteen versus literally thousands of people" og:url: https://time.com/4967645/donald-trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-katrina/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc683b2e75f64f9e/6988e0577cdbacc5a8d5a503/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-09.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: Trump, San Juan, Puerto Rico - 03 Oct 2017 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Says Hurricane Maria Was Not 'a Real Catastrophe Like Hurricane Katrina' twitter:description: "Sixteen versus literally thousands of people" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc683b2e75f64f9e/6988e0577cdbacc5a8d5a503/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-09.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says Hurricane Maria Was Not 'a Real Catastrophe Like Hurricane Katrina' > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=5df93068-cb4b-4199-b8d0-5bbfe7319801&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump Tells Puerto Rico Hurricane Destruction Killed The U.S. Budget [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Tells Puerto Rico Hurricane Destruction Killed The U.S. Budget](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oF8uP8zr.m3u8) (0:51)  _Published 2017-10-03. President Trump Tells Puerto Rico Hurricane Destruction Killed The U.S. Budget_  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Oct 3, 2017 6:42 PM UTC  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Oct 3, 2017 6:42 PM UTC President Trump praised officials for the disaster relief effort in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, noting that the death toll was relatively low in comparison with past events like Hurricane Katrina. “Every death is a horror, but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous— hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died— and you look at what happened here with really a storm that was just totally overpowering, nobody’s ever seen anything like this,” Trump said during a briefing as part of his visit to the island Tuesday. He turned to Puerto Rico’s Governor, Ricardo Rossello, who was sitting next to him, and asked him to confirm the death toll. When Rossello told him it was 16, Trump was praiseworthy. “You can be very proud of all of your people, all of our people, working together,” he said. “Sixteen versus literally thousands of people. You can be very proud. Everyone around this table and everyone watching can really be proud of what’s taken place in Puerto Rico.” But Puerto Rico Public Safety Secretary Héctor Pesquera has pushed back on these figures. He t[old Omaya Sosa Pascual](http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article176670706.html), a reporter at the Center for Investigative Journalism, that he believes the number of fatalities has exceeded 16\. It is unlikely, however, that the death toll from Hurricane Maria will surpass that of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which led to an estimated 1, 833 deaths, according to[ figures from FEMA](http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/us/hurricane-katrina-statistics-fast-facts/index.html) posted by CNN. The President’s visit to Puerto Rico, which is slated to last a little over five hours, comes just days after [he criticized ](http://time.com/4963903/donald-trump-puerto-rican-leaders-want-everything-to-be-done-for-them/)San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz after she asked the U.S. government for more resources. Trump wrote on Twitter that some officials in the U.S. territory want “everything to be done for them,” although he did praise Rossello and Congresswoman Jennifer Gonzalez-Colon. ## Transcript Now I hate to tell you Puerto Rico, but you're throwing our budget a little out of whack, because we've spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico, and that's fine. We saved a lot of lives. Every death is a horror. But, if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina And you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds, and hundreds of people that died. And you look at what happened here with really a storm that was just totally overpowering. Nobodies ever seen anything like this. What is your death count as of this moment, 17? 16, 17. 16 people certified. 16 people versus in the thousands. You can be very proud of all of your people, all of our people working together, 16 versus literally thousands of people. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4967645/donald-trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-katrina/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4967645/donald-trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-katrina/"},"headline":"President Trump Says Hurricane Maria Was Not 'a Real Catastrophe Like Hurricane Katrina'","datePublished":"2017-10-03T18:42:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:55:12.500Z","description":"President Trump praised officials for the disaster relief effort in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, noting that the death toll was relatively low in comparison...","url":"https://time.com/4967645/donald-trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-katrina/","keywords":["Puerto Rico","Donald Trump","onetime","Hurricane Maria"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc683b2e75f64f9e/6988e0577cdbacc5a8d5a503/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-09.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc683b2e75f64f9e/6988e0577cdbacc5a8d5a503/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-09.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump, San Juan, Puerto Rico - 03 Oct 2017","caption":"Trump, San Juan, Puerto Rico - 03 Oct 2017","creditText":"AP/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/puerto-rico/","name":"Puerto Rico"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4967645/donald-trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-katrina/","name":"President Trump Says Hurricane Maria Was Not 'a Real Catastrophe Like Hurricane Katrina'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump Tells Puerto Rico Hurricane Destruction Killed The U.S. Budget","description":"President Trump Tells Puerto Rico Hurricane Destruction Killed The U.S. Budget","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/oF8uP8zr/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-10-03T17:22:52.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oF8uP8zr.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4967645/donald-trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-katrina/","duration":"PT51S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4967645/donald-trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-katrina/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```