President Trump: Puerto Rico Can Be 'Proud' Only 16 People Died

SAN JUAN, PR — President Trump told Puerto Rico it should be "very proud" that only 16 people died when Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on the island, depriving millions of people of power, food and clean water. Trump said that compared to "a real catastrophe" — Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — "everybody watching can really be very proud of what's taken place in Puerto Rico."

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced after Trump left the island that the death toll from Maria had grown to 34, the Associated Press reported. Meanwhile, more than half of the island is still without potable drinking water, only around 7 percent have had their electricity restored and around three-quarters of the ATMs are not working, according to CNN.

Trump arrived in Puerto Rico Tuesday morning and met with federal and local officials for a briefing on the territory's ongoing recovery efforts.

"I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you threw our budget a little out of whack," Trump said during the meeting. "But that's fine," he added. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

The Trump administration has faced criticism for its response to Puerto Rico's emergency. Nearly all of the island's more than 3 million residents have been left without power, and many are struggling to obtain basic food and water. And yet it's taken the president almost two weeks since Maria struck to set foot on the island, despite the fact that he made it to both Florida and Houston Hurricanes Irma and Harvey much more quickly — and Puerto Rico was also victim to Irma's destructive force.

Trump had lashed out over the weekend at San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz who criticized the federal response, but before leaving for his trip, he said, "she's come back a long way."

Watch: Trump Arrives In Storm-Ravaged Puerto Rico

In the hangar where the briefing was held, Trump exchanged pleasantries with Cruz.

"The governor is not even from my party, and he was tremendously supportive," Trump said during the briefing. "Right from the beginning this governor did not play politics."

Before he left for the trip, Trump told reporters that he was seeing widespread praise of the administration's work in Puerto Rico.

"I think it’s now acknowledged what a great job we’ve done, and people are looking at that," he said. "And in Texas and in Florida, we get an A+. And I’ll tell you what, I think we’ve done just as good in Puerto Rico, and it’s actually a much tougher situation. But now the roads are cleared, communications is starting to come back."

But he also seemed to blame locals, many of whom are now homeless, for not doing enough.

"We need their truck drivers to start driving trucks," he said. "On a local level, they have to give us more help. But I will tell you, the first responders, the military, FEMA, they have done an incredible job in Puerto Rico."

Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez Colon, who holds Puerto Rico's non-voting seat in the House of Representatives, said the level of communication between the federal and local governments during the crisis has been like "never before."

Trump is scheduled to visit Las Vegas on Wednesday after the city fell victim to the worst mass shooting in recent history.

Watch a replay of the the president's briefing in Puerto Rico below.

Write a letter to the editor of the White House Patch.

Like us on Facebook:

Follow us on Twitter.

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images