Less than a third of Americans think Trump has handled Puerto Rico well

By Philip Bump October 4 at 10:20 AM

To hear President Trump tell it, the reason that the media is reporting that the recovery efforts from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico were fumbling is simply because the media is out to get him. He’s said as much on Twitter, more than once, including Wednesday morning.

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What’s never been explained is why the “fake news” would go out of its way to unfairly disparage Trump’s handling of Maria’s effects on Puerto Rico when it didn’t unfairly disparage his handling of how the Harvey and Irma hurricanes affected Texas and Florida. One can either believe that the press treated Trump fairly in its coverage of the first two storms and then suddenly decided to lie about Trump for unclear reasons, or one can believe that the news media is reporting both responses fairly — and that in Puerto Rico is legitimately not going as well.

New polling from the Associated Press and its pollsters at NORC indicates that more Americans have embraced the latter assumption. Only 32 percent think Trump has handled the Puerto Rico crisis well, while 48 percent approve of his handling of the responses to Harvey and Irma. A plurality approve of his handling of the Texas and Florida storms; nearly half disapprove of his handling of Maria.

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