Trump baselessly accuses Democrats of inflating Hurricane Maria death toll

In a series of Thursday morning tweets, President Trump denied the report commissioned by the Puerto Rican government that put the death toll from last year's Hurricane Maria's near 3,000, blaming Democrats for inflating the numbers "in order to make [him] look as bad as possible."

"3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000. This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!"

Go deeper: What they're saying: Lawmakers push back against Trump's Maria comments.