Trump declares himself ‘the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico’ — and demands ‘appreciation’

President Donald Trump on Tuesday continued his attacks on Puerto Rico, which he accused of being insufficiently appreciative of his efforts to help it recover from Hurricane Maria.

Writing on Twitter, the president slammed the island for purportedly using too much money to recover from the devastating hurricane that killed thousands of people in 2017.

He then declared that Puerto Rico should be far more grateful for his efforts.

"The best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico is President Donald J. Trump," the president wrote. "So many wonderful people, but with such bad Island leadership and with so much money wasted. Cannot continue to hurt our Farmers and States with these massive payments, and so little appreciation!"

Trump last year infamously defended his work to help Puerto Rico recover from the hurricane by denying official estimates that thousands of people had died during or in the aftermath of the storm.

“3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico,” Trump falsely claimed. “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.”

Last week, Trump reportedly ordered that the government stop making disaster relief payments to the island, which prompted Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló to threaten to punch the president.