President opposes additional disaster aid for territory, saying funds were out of proportion to what mainland states got

What’s certain is the administration explicitly warned Senate Democrats in advance that the president would not tolerate anything more for Puerto Rico in a disaster aid bill now pending in Congress.

...following disagreements with other members of the Trump administration over housing policy and the White House’s attempt to block disaster-recovery money for Puerto Rico

The president sees the accepted death toll of nearly 3,000 as evidence of a political conspiracy against him.

Ignoring facts provided by his own government, Mr. Trump remarkably blamed Democrats for padding the death toll

To qualify, Puerto Ricans had to provide a death certificate or letter from a government official "that clearly indicates the death was attributed to the emergency or disaster”

...a figure that is more than 20 times the official death toll.

“If you’re not an American citizen, you should not be wearing that shirt,”

...which charts the path for the decolonization of Puerto Rico and its entry into the Union as a State no later than January 1. 2021.

The official death toll from the storm is listed as 64

The latest estimate: roughly 4,600, many of them from delayed medical care.

“We have the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. We go anywhere, anytime we want in the world ... And [in Puerto Rico] we didn’t use those assets the way they should have been used.”

Puerto Rico lost power again Wednesday when a toppled transmission line caused a total blackout, the most recent outcome of the island’s aged power infrastructure struggling to recover after Hurricane Maria.

More significantly ... FEMA did not anticipate having to take on a lead role in the aftermath of the disaster, despite clear signs that the island’s government and critical infrastructure would be overwhelmed in the face of such a storm.

By the time 18.5 million meals were due, Tribute had delivered only 50,000. And FEMA inspectors discovered a problem: The food had been packaged separately from the pouches used to heat them. FEMA’s solicitation required “self-heating meals.”

In a sign that FEMA believes the immediate humanitarian emergency has subsided, on Jan. 31 it will, in its own words, "officially shut off" the mission it says has provided more than 30 million gallons of potable water and nearly 60 million meals across the island in the four months since the hurricane.

The figure released Friday by the island’s governor and power utility company indicates that more than 1.5 million people on the island are still in the dark. Experts say some parts of the island are not expected to get power back until next spring.

Puerto Rico is considered part of the United States in all realms except taxes — meaning that island residents don’t pay federal income taxes but do pay into Social Security. Companies based on the island are treated as if they were located in other Caribbean tax havens not under an American flag.

“Before the hurricane, I had an average of 82 deaths daily. That changes from Sept. 20 to 30th. Now I have an average of 118 deaths daily,” Wanda Llovet, the director of the Demographic Registry in Puerto Rico, said in a mid-November interview.

The line failure took out 25% of Puerto Rico's power generation, which was at 43% capacity just before the failure

Six weeks after Hurricane Maria, the head of the Army Corps of Engineers predicts another two to three months before most Puerto Ricans have power restored

Who are the victims? Everyone in Puerto Rico.

...saying controversy surrounding the agreement was distracting from the effort to restore power.

The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has launched an inquiry into the deal with Whitefish following calls by the press and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

About 50 volunteer nurses visited two dozen towns in urban and rural areas, and described the desperation of Puerto Ricans — even five weeks after Hurricane Maria hit the island — as worse than anything they had witnessed on other humanitarian missions, including the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans and the earthquake in Haiti.

Whitefish Energy Holdings, which had a reported staff of only two full-time employees when Hurricane Maria touched down, appears ill-equipped to handle the daunting task of restoring electricity to Puerto Rico’s more than 3 million residents.

“They don’t live deprived, because it’s a beautiful environment,” she continued. “The weather is nice, the climate is good most of the time, so it’s different from here”

The island doesn't need new loans. It needs competent hurricane relief.

A full-blown humanitarian crisis is still underway in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island last month. More than 80 percent of the island is still without electricity, there’s a daily shortage of 1.8 million meals, and hospitals are running low on medication

U.S. officials inadvertently included a Bloomberg reporter on an internal email list.

Trump has talked about another U.S. territory struck by hurricanes as if it's a foreign country. He said in a speech at the Values Voters Summit on Friday morning that he met with the "president" of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Three conditions put a population at greatest risk from communicable diseases: overcrowding, poor sanitation, and lack of health care.

...suggesting that U.S. citizens on the hurricane-ravaged island shouldn’t get used to assistance from the federal government

The recovery has moved slowly since Maria struck the US territory on September 20, leaving most of the island without basic services such as power and running water

It includes money for Puerto Rico’s ongoing struggle with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, though only a fraction of that headline number. In fact, $5 billion of the funds earmarked for Puerto Rico comes in the form of a loan

At some point this week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency removed information from its website documenting how much of the island of Puerto Rico still lacked power or access to drinking water. Instead, our Jenna Johnson reported, the federal agency was relaying only positive information, documenting how many federal workers were on the ground and the extent to which roads had been cleared.

No one really knows exactly what drives the wild swings in Trump's behavior from one day to the next.

Trump turned it into an opportunity to congratulate himself and the federal government's response to the disaster and to say the island should be “very proud” of its low official death count.

But when Hurricane Maria struck at full strength several days later—precisely as advertised, and similar in scale to Harvey—the U.S. military simply called off the huge resources it had mustered for Hurricane Irma. An inadequately small military contingent was left on its own for nearly two weeks to help with the damage. If there was a plan for disaster relief it was not publicly apparent.

"On behalf of all the people of Texas, and all of the people of — if you look today you will see what’s happening and how horrible it is, but we have it under really great control, Puerto Rico and the people of Florida that have really suffered over this last short period of time with the hurricanes, I want to just remember them," Trump said during the trophy presentation.

What Trump is doing -- in his attacks on Yulin Cruz and the media -- is trying to divide the country as a way to deflect blame for his administration's performance.

In a series of Saturday morning tweets, Trump blasted the “poor leadership ability” of Puerto Rican officials, who he said “want everything to be done for them.”

“This is an island surrounded by water, big water, ocean water”

Trump, so visible when Harvey and Irma hit, all but ignored the devastation that Maria brought to Puerto Rico, devoting more attention to respect for the flag at NFL games.

Trump has faced mounting criticism from lawmakers, Puerto Rican officials, and prominent political figures including Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney, who alleged that the president wasn’t doing enough to help the island — and was instead focused on his feud with kneeling NFL players.

Irma -- a Category 5 storm that has kept sustained winds of 180 mph longer than any other on record -- knocked out electricity a day earlier to more than 1 million customers in Puerto Rico as it churned off the US territory, and devastated smaller islands

Rosselló asked for a court-supervised restructuring of part of the commonwealth's $70 billion in bond debt, in what amounts to the largest local government bankruptcy in U.S. history.