He was criticised for treating a visit to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the hurricane like a rally, mimicking a basketball player as he threw paper towels to Puerto Rican residents at a local relief centre.
Paul Ryan, the Republican house speaker, said he had "no reason to dispute" the death toll of 3,000.
Trump's administration has been faulted for its response to Hurricane Maria. Trump claims, without evidence, that the total is wrong.
"How stupid, how tone deaf, how surreal, how insensitive, how offensive", Navarro told CNN.
As the southeastern US coastal states now face a looming threat from fast-approaching Hurricane Florence, Trump has for days revisited the USA government's performance in handling the aftermath of Maria's stunning blow to Puerto Rico and other hurricanes that hit the US mainland a year ago.
She says Trump's presidency is "the theater of the absurd every day". "A true leader would offer his condolences to the people of Puerto Rico, a true leader would offer his condolences to United States citizens and vow to never let something like that happen again". Curbelo said he sees no basis for that claim. "That's the official death toll, you lunatic".
A FEMA administrator said the bottles, pictured on pallet after pallet on a Puerto Rican runway and covered in blue plastic, were deemed surplus.
Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is retiring from Congress, called the president's tweets "mind-boggling".
Trump was widely panned for his insensitive tweets.
He accused Democrats of inflating the official death toll to "make me look as bad as possible". People were naturally shocked by this; the government itself has estimated, in the wake of solid research, that about 2,975 people died in Puerto Rico because of the natural disaster and the destruction it created.
"To be tweeting about 3,000 people and be efficient, it's actually disrespectful for my country", said Cora, a former player from Caguas, about 20 miles south of San Juan.
At his weekly news conference today, Ryan said, "Casualties don't make a person look bad".
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello also has criticized Trump for not providing additional federal funds still needed for emergency housing and debris removal.
Puerto Rico was recovering from Hurricane Irma before Hurricane Maria hit in September 2017, destroying roads and bridges and leaving much of the Caribbean island without electricity for months.
And FEMA Administrator Brock Long has said FEMA made changes to some of its priorities and procedures. "Democrats pushed him in front of my auto'".
Cruz tweeted Thursday, "Simply put: delusional, paranoid, and unhinged from any sense of reality".
DeSantis' statement did not mention Trump by name, but his campaign's decision to come out against the President's view was particularly noteworthy given the candidate openly courted Trump during his primary campaign and has commended him countless times.
"Damn it, this is not about politics, this was always about saving lives", she told NBC television. The Category 2 storm is expected to make landfall in the Carolinas.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority leader, said Trump owed an apology to the 3,000 families for "the shameful attack on deceased fellow Americans".
Trump weighed in on Puerto Rico as his administration was bracing for Hurricane Florence, a risky Category 2 storm expected to soon blast the Carolinas with wind, rain and storm surge.
The report came almost a year after a much-maligned visit to Puerto Rico by Trump two weeks after Maria, where he implied that residents should be "proud" that the official death toll at the time was just 16 people, far lower than that of a "real catastrophe, like Katrina".
