US President Donald Trump has joked Puerto Rico's damage from Hurricane Maria has put the budget "out of whack".

Mr Trump and the First Lady touched down on Tuesday morning to inspect the devastated island after the Category 5 storm left 16 dead in the US territory.

The president was joined by Puerto Rico and Federal Emergency Management Authority officials for a briefing at National Guard base in the capital San Juan.

Among those in attendance were Governor Ricardo Rossello, who the president had praised for his kind words about the Trump administration's recovery efforts, as well as San Juan Mayor Carmen Yelin Cruz, who Mr Trump had chastised for pleading for more help.

Puerto Rico's already fragile power grid was wiped out by the September 20 hurricane, and there was criticism of the relief effort.

Mr Trump attempted to make light of the situation when sat down for a briefing after his arrival.

"Now I hate to tell you Puerto Rico, but you've thrown our budget a little out of whack," Mr Trump said, referring to Puerto Rico's $74 billion (£56b) public debt load and a decade-old economic recession.

"Because we've spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico and that's fine, we've saved a lot of lives."

The president then went on to compare the aftermath of Maria to that of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"Every death is a horror, if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous, hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here with really a storm that was just totally overpowering.

"Nobody's ever seen anything like this."

Later during the visit he tossed paper towels out to a crowd of the island's residents who were being handed supplies.

On his first visit to survey damage from Hurricane Maria, the president lobbed at least five rolls into a crowd gathered at Calvary Chapel. Many caught them with a smile and took photos.

The trip is Mr 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 US Virgin Islands inundated by floodwaters and hit by high winds.