The Latest: Trump contrasts Puerto Rico with Katrina

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump and Puerto Rico (all times local):

1:50 p.m.

President Donald Trump says Puerto Rico suffered a relatively low death toll from Hurricane Maria compared with "a real catastrophe like Katrina," which killed more than a thousand people in 2005.

Trump spoke as he toured the island Tuesday. He pledged an all-out effort to help Puerto Rico.

The president said that while "every death is a horror," he drew a distinction between "a real catastrophe like Katrina" and "what happened here" in Puerto Rico, where at least 16 people died.

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1:10 p.m.

President Donald Trump is touring the storm damage of San Juan and hearing the stories of residents still recovering from Hurricane Maria.

The president is visiting neighborhoods and has told one resident that the governor and the mayor are "doing a good job."

Recently, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz criticized the pace of the federal government's response and drew Trump's scorn.

The president's visit included meetings with her and other local officials. As he left the airport, the president's motorcade snaked through streets lined with downed tree limbs, mangled signs and drooping power lines. A beach was covered in debris.

Scattered groups of people gathered to watch the motorcade pass. One held a sign reading, "Climate change is real." Another's said: "You are a bad hombre."

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12:20 p.m.

President Donald Trump is pledging to help Puerto Rico continue to recover from Hurricane Maria's devastation. He is defending his administration's handling of the disaster that knocked out power to the U.S. island's 3.4 million people.

In an airport hangar in Puerto Rico, Trump also sought praise from local officials. He repeated that they have to help with the recovery and scolded them for a longstanding budget crisis. Trump said, "I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico but you've thrown our budget a little out of whack because we've spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico."

He was referring to Puerto $74 billion public debt load and a decade-old economic recession.

Trump's visit comes after what critics have said was a slow response.

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11:50 a.m.

President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, have arrived in storm-damaged Puerto Rico.

The first couple is visiting Tuesday to review the U.S. island's recovery from Hurricane Maria, which blew ashore Sept. 20. They are meeting with local and federal officials working to restore power and deliver food and supplies to Puerto Rico's 3.4 million people.

Trump's visit comes after what critics have said was a too-slow response to the crisis on the island. The president said Tuesday that local "have to give us more help" in responding to the devastation. Trump on Tuesday praised the federal response, saying, "it's now acknowledged what a great job we've done."

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8:50 a.m.

President Donald Trump says the federal government has done a good job in Puerto Rico responding to the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria, but says local officials need to "give us more help."

Trump says Tuesday that "in Texas and in Florida we get an A-plus, and I'll tell you what, I think we've done just as good in Puerto Rico."

Trump says roads are cleared and communications are "starting to come back." He says on a "local level they have to give us more help."

The president lashed out at the mayor of San Juan after she criticized the federal response. He now says that San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz "has come back a long way."

The White House says Cruz had been invited to participate in Tuesday's events, but it was unclear whether she and the president would meet.

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4 a.m.

President Donald Trump is meeting Tuesday with some of the 3.4 million Puerto Ricans struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria, as criticism of the federal government's sluggish response continues.

The president is expected to spend more than five hours on the ground, meeting with first responders, local officials and some of the residents struggling to recover from a hurricane that, in the president's words, left the island U.S. territory "flattened."

Trump and first lady Melania Trump are scheduled to attend briefings, visit a church, and meet with Gov. Ricardo Rossello, as well as the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands. They'll also meet with Navy and Marine Corps personnel on the flight deck of the USS Kearsarge.