Almost half disapprove of Trump’s handling of Puerto Rico: poll

Nearly half of Americans disapprove of President Trump’s handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, according to a new poll.

Forty-nine percent of respondents in the Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey said they did not approve of the president’s response to the humanitarian crisis on the island, where thousands of people still have limited or no access to basic necessities such as food, water and electricity. 

Only 32 percent said they approved of the way Trump has handled the emergency. 

The poll, conducted on Sept. 28-Oct. 2, has a margin of error is 4.1 percentage points. 

{mosads}Trump and first lady Melania Trump visited the hurricane-ravaged island on Tuesday, meeting with officials and handing out aid to storm victims. 

The president’s comments on the hurricane-ravaged island sparked controversy, however.

“Every death is a horror,” the president told officials

“But if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here with, really, a storm that was just totally overpowering — nobody has ever seen anything like this.”

He also joked that relief efforts were breaking the federal effort.