AP FACT CHECK: Trump off the mark on Puerto Rico hurricane

WASHINGTON – An AP Fact Check finds that President Donald Trump has struck more than one false note in his remarks about Puerto Rico’s hurricane disaster.

He’s exaggerated the ferocity of the storm and the pace of the island’s recovery. He’s also seemed to suggest that the territory’s massive debt would go away.

Trump has called Hurricane Maria a Category 5 storm, but it had weakened slightly to a Category 4 when it struck Puerto Rico. No official reports claim winds of 200 mph as Trump has stated.

Maria also isn’t the strongest storm to make landfall in the U.S., as Trump has said. Actually, three Category 5 hurricanes have made landfall, most recently Andrew in 1992.

EDITOR’S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures