A Torrent of B.S.: Trump-led Lies About Hurricane Relief Spark Fears
False claims, disinformation, and AI sorcery are spreading rapidly amid Helene’s aftermath.
The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene has given way to a torrent of disinformation, rumors, conspiracies and lies about the federal government’s response to the disaster.
Much of it appears to be pushed by Donald Trump and his allies, who have accused the Biden-Harris administration of a host of actions that government officials insist is simply untrue.
Trump has argued that FEMA has depleted its storm relief funds because it spent much of that money “housing” illegal migrants. His allies have accused FEMA of confiscating property, of making people apply for help, of asking for cash donations, and of preventing everyone from Elon Musk to the Department of Defense from helping out with the response efforts. Virtually all of them have pushed stories insisting that Kamala Harris told storm victims they could get only $750 in aid. (That’s just one type of assistance they can get quickly, not the full amount available.)
Things have gotten bad enough that on Friday, FEMA took the step of posting a “rumor response” webpage. The White House put out a memo of its own accusing Republican leaders of spreading “bald faced lies” and “poison.” One official, speaking to The Bulwark, said they feared there could be on-the-ground confrontations involving people who believed FEMA was trying to plunder the dispossessed.
Much of MAGAville will, naturally, dismiss this government pushback as spin from people covering up their negligence. But Republicans on the ground have also been distraught by the sheer pervasiveness of the disinformation. Glenn Jacobs, a former WWE star turned Knox County mayor, took to X on Friday morning to make clear that the rumors of FEMA confiscating supplies was bunk. North Carolina Republic state Sen. Kevin Corbin did the same on Facebook.
Below, I talked with Tim Miller about how bad the situation has gotten and what, if anything, can be done about it.
It's heartbreaking to see. First nature's storm. Now a storm of bullshit.
This is what happens when a person lets someone have a monopoly on the truth, which Trump claims he has. He gets to say whatever he wants, and people believe it as fact. I don’t know what it will take to stop this type of mis/disinformation machine, but we must remember that this is his entire strategy. If people don’t remain angry, he doesn’t have any power or audience, so it’s imperative to keep people enraged and ginned up in order for his schtick to work. He has to pit X against Y or the house of cards falls apart. I wonder what it will take for Republican leaders in these states to start to push back.