WASHINGTON (WCBS 880/CBS News/AP) -- President Donald Trump this week called his administration's response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico an "unsung success."
Trump praised the federal response to Maria as he met with top Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials Tuesday in the Oval Office to address the looming threat of Hurricane Florence.
The president made the remark when he was asked what lessons could be learned from Puerto Rico. The governor of Puerto Rico recently revised the death toll as a result of that storm from 64 to 2,975, and many residents were without power for months.
"I actually think it was one of the best jobs that's ever been done with respect to what this is all about," Mr. Trump said Tuesday in a briefing with DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and FEMA Administrator Brock Long. "Puerto Rico got hit not with one hurricane, but with two. And the problem with Puerto Rico is their electric grid and their electric-generating plant was dead before the storms ever hit. It was in very bad shape, it was in bankruptcy. Had no money, was largely closed."
"And when the storm hit they had no electricity, essentially before the storm and when the storm hit that took it out entirely," the president continued. "The job that FEMA and law enforcement and everybody did working along with the governor in Puerto Rico I think was tremendous. I think that Puerto Rico was an incredible, unsung success."
Trump's point is that he believes the federal government's response to Maria is "something worthy of higher marks than the media and people perhaps or certainly in Puerto Rico have given him – the local officials and a number of people who live down there have been sharply critical of the response," CBS News White House Correspondent Steven Portnoy told WCBS 880's Wayne Cabot and Paul Murnane.
The Trump administration has been intensely criticized for its response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. But it's not the first time Trump has lauded his administration's response, despite those criticisms — the president called the federal response to the storm "fantastic" last month.
"The president's view is that the best job of all the hurricanes that the government responded to last year was in Puerto Rico, but he says nobody would understand that," Portnoy said. "Obviously, many people down in Puerto Rico who have had to live through it have had a very different view of what they see as a lackluster federal response to a dire conditions that they suffered through last year."
Trump claimed the U.S. is prepared for Hurricane Florence, which he described as "tremendously big and tremendously wet." The hurricane, currently a category 4, is expected to slam the North and South Carolina and Virginia by Thursday. Mr. Trump has already approved emergency declarations from those three states.
"The safety of the American people is my absolute highest priority. We are sparing no expense," Mr. Trump said Tuesday.
Florence is expected to increase in size and strength, with life-threatening storm surges possible, according to the National Hurricane Center. Evacuation orders are in place for much of the coastline that's expected to take a hit.
Trump on Wednesday morning also issued a video statement warning people to get out of the path of the hurricane.
"Don't play games with it. It's a big one," he said.
(© 2018 WCBS 880. CBS News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
