"Now, in many cases, it has no infrastructure," Mr. Trump said of Puerto Rico, speaking to reporters at a meeting with lawmakers at the White House. "These are great people. They are wonderful people. They are hardy people. They will be back."

The president said he has had to delay the usual presidential visit to survey a natural disaster because of the extensive damage to the island, vast portions of which remain crumbled and without power.

"We don't want to disrupt the relief effort," the president said.

But Mr. Trump bragged about the response by the federal government in the aftermath of the storm, saying federal agencies have overcome the difficulty of trying to provide assistance to people living on an island.

"It's very, very tough because it's an island," the president said, asserting that his government received "A+" marks for responding to storms in Texas and Florida. "The difference is this is an island sitting in the middle of an ocean — and it's a big ocean, a really, really big ocean."