Touring a small slice of Hurricane Maria's devastation, President Donald Trump congratulated Puerto Rico on Tuesday for escaping the higher death toll of "a real catastrophe like Katrina" and heaped praise on the relief efforts of his administration without mentioning the sharp criticism the federal response has drawn.
"Really nothing short of a miracle," he said of the recovery, an assessment at odds with the despair of many still struggling to find water and food outside the capital city in wide swaths of an island where only 5 percent of electricity customers have power back. The governor of Puerto Rico said late Tuesday that the official death toll has been increased to 34 from 16.
President Donald Trump tosses paper towels into a crowd as he hands out supplies at Calvary Chapel, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. Trump is in Puerto Rico to survey hurricane damage. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
In the heart of San Juan, in fact, a few miles from the air base where Trump gave his thumbs-up report on progress, people stacked sewage-fouled clothes and mattresses outside houses and businesses lacking electricity nearly two weeks after the storm. "Nobody's come," said Ray Negron, 38, collecting debris in the Playita neighborhood.
Trump pledged an all-out effort to help the island while adding, somewhat lightly: "Now 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. And that's fine. We've saved a lot of lives."
Known deaths from Maria in the U.S. territory stand at 34. But local officials caution that any accounting of death and destruction is far from complete as people suffer secondary effects from thirst, hunger and extreme heat without air conditioning. As for Katrina, as many as 1,800 people died in 2005 when levees protecting New Orleans broke, a toll in lives and property that took years to understand.
The visit offered fresh evidence of the unconventional path Trump has taken in responding to the one-two-three punch from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. His effusive praise for federal relief efforts has overshadowed his displays of empathy for those who are suffering. And in Puerto Rico, in particular, his criticism of local people for not doing more to help themselves has struck an off note during a time of crisis.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz during a briefing on hurricane recovery efforts with first responders at Luis Muniz Air National Guard Base, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Trump said his visit was "not about me" but then praised local officials for offering kind words about his administration's recovery effort and invited one to repeat the "nice things" she'd said earlier. Trump also singled out Gov. Ricardo Rossello for "giving us the highest praise."
"Every death is a horror," he said, "but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina and you look at the tremendous, hundreds of 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 told local officials "you can be very proud of all your people, all of our people working together."
Trump's most prominent critic in Puerto Rico, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, joined other officials at the air base for a briefing with him, shook the president's hand and said afterward she hoped he now understood the gravity of the situation. But his comment implying Maria was not a Katrina-level event left her unsure.
"Sometimes his style of communication gets in the way," she told CNN. "I would hope that the president of the United States stops spouting out comments that really hurt the people of Puerto Rico."
On a more positive note, Cruz said: "I saw a real connection between the reality and the White House staff. I think they finally understood."
President Donald Trump gestures after arriving at the Luis Muñiz Air National Guard Base in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017. Trump is visiting Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Air Force One brought the president, first lady Melania Trump and aides to Puerto Rico for a tour stretching through the afternoon. At least parts of the itinerary seemed drawn to ensure a friendly reception: Trump visited with selected families waiting on their laws on a street lined with debris, including tree limbs and corrugated metal siding. Trump posed for photos, asked the residents what it was like during the storm and pledged his assistance.
"Thank you for being here, it's so good to see you," one man said in Spanish.
Up the road in the upscale Guaynabo neighborhood, one of the fastest to recover, around 200 people cheered Trump's visit to a local church being used to distribute supplies. Many crowded around him for cellphone photos as he handed out flashlights and tossed rolls of paper towels into the friendly crowd.
"There's a lot of love in this room, a lot of love," Trump said. "Great people."
Asked by the AP what he has to say to people still without power, food and water, he spoke of the generators brought to the island and said the electrical grid is being fixed.
"Again, the job that's been done here is really nothing short of a miracle," he said.
President Donald Trump hands out food to people effected by Hurricane Maria as he visits a disaster relief distribution center at Calgary Chapel in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017. Trump is visiting Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria.(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Earlier, on approach to the airport, Air Force One descended over a landscape marked by mangled palm trees, metal debris strewn near homes and patches of stripped trees, yet with less devastation evident than farther from San Juan.
For much of his tour, Trump remained focused primarily on drawing praise.
"I appreciate your support and I know you appreciate ours," Trump said. "Our country has really gone all out. It's not only dangerous, it's expensive. But I consider it a great honor."
Large-scale protests against Trump, talked about in advance, failed to materialize by early afternoon, with only a few knots of people gathering around San Juan.
As he headed out from the White House to visit the island, Trump told reporters "it's now acknowledged what a great job we've done."
The trip is Trump's fourth to areas battered by storms during an unusually violent hurricane season that has also seen parts of Texas, Florida, Louisiana and the U.S. Virgin Islands inundated by floodwaters and hit by high winds.
Trump's visit follows a weekend in which he had aggressively pushed back against critics, including Cruz. He had responded angrily on Twitter, deriding the "poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help."
"They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort," he added, scoffing at "politically motivated ingrates" who had criticized the federal work, and insisting that "tremendous progress" was being made.
Cruz had begged the administration to "make sure somebody is in charge that is up to the task of saving lives" and said federal inefficiency was killing people.
Trump and his wife also visited Navy and Marine Corps personnel on the flight deck of the USS Kearsarge, landing on the deck in Marine One.
On the flight back to Washington, Trump told reporters he'd heard no criticism while on the ground. "No, we only heard thank you's from the people of Puerto Rico," he said, adding, "I think it meant a lot to the people of Puerto Rico that I was there."
Even before the storm hit on Sept. 20, Puerto Rico was in dire condition thanks to a decade-long economic recession that had left its infrastructure, including the island's power lines, in a sorry state. Maria was the most powerful hurricane to hit the island in nearly a century and unleashed floods and mudslides that knocked out the island's entire electrical grid and telecommunications, along with many roads.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said more than 12,000 federal officials are now on the ground on the island, and 45 percent of customers now have access to drinking water. Businesses are also beginning to re-open, with 70 percent of retail gas stations now up and running.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reported a steep drop in earnings Saturday as the paper value of its investments plummeted and it pared its Apple holdings. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of shareholders looked forward to hearing from Buffett directly, buoyed by a jump in performance of the many companies Berkshire operates directly.
Berkshire reported a $12.7 billion profit, or $8.825 per Class A share, in first the quarter, down 64% from $35.5 billion, or $24,377 per A share a year ago.
Buffett encourages investors to pay more attention to the conglomerate's operating earnings that exclude the investment figures. Operating earnings jumped 39% to $11.222 billion, or $7,796.47 per Class A share, led by insurance companies’ strong performance.
By that measure, Berkshire beat expectations of the three analysts surveyed by FactSet Research, who had predicted operating earnings of $6,701.87 per Class A share.
As part of Buffett's stock sales, he trimmed about 13% of Berkshire's massive Apple stake. Holdings in the iPhone maker are still Berkshire's biggest stake, making up $135.4 billion of the company's $364 billion portfolio. Buffett said he expects Apple to remain the biggest investment for years, even when his successor Greg Abel eventually takes over.
As for Berkshire's core insurance businesses, the conglomerate reported a $2.6 billion underwriting profit at its insurers, up from $911 million a year ago.
BNSF railroad's profits dropped 8% to $1.143 billion, but most of Bershire's many other companies delivered solid results, including a 72% jump in operating profit at the utility unit that added $717 million to earnings.
Cash on hand rose to a record $188.993 billion in the quarter.
“We’d love to spend it but we won’t spend it unless we’re doing something with very little risk that will make us a lot of money,” Buffett said.
Tens of thousands filled the arena eager to vacuum up tidbits of wisdom from Buffett, who famously dubbed the meeting ‘Woodstock for Capitalists.’
But a key ingredient is missing this year: It’s the first meeting since Vice Chairman Charlie Munger died.
The meeting opened with a video tribute highlighting some of his best known quotes, including classic lines like “If people weren't so often wrong, we wouldn't be so rich.” The video also featured classic skits the investors made with Hollywood stars over the years, including a “Desperate Housewives” spoof where one of the women introduced Munger as her boyfriend and another in which actress Jaimie Lee Curtis swooned over him.
As the video ended, the arena erupted in a prolonged standing ovation honoring Munger, whom Buffett called “the architect of Berkshire Hathaway.”
Buffett said Munger remained curious about the world up until the end of his life at 99, attending dinner parties, meetings and regular Zoom calls.
“Like his hero Ben Franklin, Charlie wanted to understand everything,” Buffett said.
For decades, Munger and Buffett functioned as a classic comedy duo, with Buffett offering lengthy setups to Munger's witty one-liners. He once referred to unproven internet companies as “turds.”
Together, the pair transformed Berkshire from a floundering textile mill into a massive conglomerate made up of a variety of interests, from insurance companies such as Geico to BNSF railroad to several major utilities and an assortment of other companies.
Munger often summed up the key Berkshire’s success as “trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.” He and Buffett also were known for sticking to businesses they understood well.
“Warren always did at least 80% of the talking. But Charlie was a great foil,” said Stansberry Research analyst Whitney Tilson, who was looking forward to his 27th consecutive meeting.
Munger's absence, however, created space for shareholders to get to know better the two executives who directly oversee Berkshire's companies: Ajit Jain, who manages the insurance units, and Abel, who handles everything else and has been named Buffett's successor. Abel and Jain shared the main stage with Buffett for the first time this year.
The first time Buffett kicked a question to Abel, he mistakenly said “Charlie?” Abel shrugged off the mistake and dove into the challenges utilities face from the increased risk of wildfires and some regulators' reluctance to let them collect a reasonable profit.
Morningstar analyst Greggory Warren said he hopes Abel will speak up more this year and let shareholders see some of the brilliance Berkshire executives talk about.
“Greg's a rock star,” said Chris Bloomstran, president of Semper Augustus Investments Group. "The bench is deep. He won’t have the same humor at the meeting. But I think we all come here to get a reminder every year to be rational.”
As always, Buffett addressed a variety of topics Saturday, though he never talks politics or reveals what he is buying. The stock he has been buying over the past year will remain a secret until he's required to disclose it in filings.
He described a recent uneasy experience with artificial intelligence, saying he saw a fake image of himself delivering a message in his voice about something he said he would never say. He predicted the technology will be a boon for scammers, and he's not sure if it will do more good than harm. The fake video was so convincing Buffett said he might have sent money to himself overseas.
“It has enormous potential for good and enormous potential for harm and I just don’t know how that plays out,” he said.
On climate change, Jain said it's creating larger losses for insurance companies and driving up prices. It's hard to know if prices are increasing enough to handle the risk, but at least insurers have the opportunity to recalibrate their premiums each year, Jain said.
“We get a lot of letters from people concerned about climate change — and I don’t think they’re wrong," Buffett said. "But they don’t understand the insurance business.”
Overall, Buffett said Berkshire's system of having all the noninsurance companies report to Abel and the insurers report to Jain is working well. The 93-year-old says he hardly gets any calls from managers any more because they get more guidance from Abel and Jain.
For more AP coverage of Warren Buffett look here: https://apnews.com/hub/warren-buffett. For Berkshire Hathaway news, see here: https://apnews.com/hub/berkshire-hathaway-inc. Follow Josh Funk online at https://www.twitter.com/funkwrite and https://www.linkedin.com/in/funkwrite.
From left, D'Ann Rhoten takes a photo of Brittany Thornton and Melissa Shapiro in the exhibit hall of the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Amy Keady of Frederick, Maryland, holds her son, Ben, 11, as they wait in line outside the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Jennifer Cua of Las Vegas sits with her purchases from Squishmallows during the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Shareholder Tina Schmidt of Cozad, Neb., wears a shirt with Warren Buffett's portrait in the style of an Andy Warhol painting at he Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
See's Candies associates, including Holly Pellicano of San Francisco, center, do yoga together before shareholders arrive for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Bart Macdonald of New York City takes photos of the BNSF Railway model train display during the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Valerie Deichert of Omaha, left, assists shareholders with their purchases from the Oriental Trading booth during the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Shareholders find their seats for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Harold and Caroline Ernst of St. Louis chat with fellow shareholders as they wait for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting to begin on Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Michelle King of San Francisco does yoga in the See's Candies booth before the arrival of shareholders for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Berkshire Hathaway shareholders pose with the mascot for one of its companies, Oriental Trading, while the more famous spokeslizard for Geico insurance looms over their shoulder, Friday, May 3, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. CEO Warren Buffett will spend hours answering questions at the meeting on Saturday. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
Berkshire Hathaway shareholders pose with a cutout poster of CEO Warren Buffett Friday, May 3, 2024, in Omaha, Neb., inside the exhibit hall in Omaha where Berkshire companies sell their products. Buffett will spend hours answering questions at the meeting Saturday. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
Daegwon Kim of South Korea, who arrived in line at 3:30 a.m., takes photos of the crowd behind him outside the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Greg Abel poses with shareholders Friday, May 3, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. Abel is set to be the next CEO after Warren Buffett is gone. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
Berkshire Hathaway shareholders watch a model BNSF train run past a model town filled with other Berkshire companies Friday, May 3, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. Buffett will spend hours answering questions at a meeting Saturday. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
Berkshire Hathaway shareholders line up to take selfies with Greg Abel Friday, May 3, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. Abel will one day replace Warren Buffett as CEO. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
Berkshire Hathaway investment manager Ted Weschler, center, talks with Brooks Running CEO Dan Sheridan, Friday, May 3, 2024, in Omaha, Neb., one day ahead of the annual shareholders meeting. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
Berkshire Hathaway shareholders pose with a cutout poster of CEO Warren Buffett, Friday, May 3, 2024, in Omaha, Neb., one day ahead of the annual shareholders meeting. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Greg Abel poses for pictures with shareholders while touring the booths Berkshires companies set up, Friday, May 3, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. Abel will succeed Warren Buffett as CEO one day. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Greg Abel checks out the flight simulators offered by one of Berkshires companies, Flight Safety as he toured the exhibit hall Friday, May 3, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. ahead of Saturday's meeting. Abel is set to succeed Warren Buffett as CEO one day. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)
