One thing victims of the extreme Hurricanes Helene and Milton disasters don't need are more fear and confusion that they already have.
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| MAGA lies about FEMA's response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton are dangerous for many reasons, but apparently victimizing victims is fine if it somehow helps Trump get elected. |
Unlike water, electricity, shelter open roads and cell service, fear and confusion are in plentiful supply, as one would expect in such an extreme calamity.
It is now the campaign strategy of Donald Trump and his supporters to promote wild stories about the federal response to the twin disasters.
I guess firing up the "base" to win the White House is more important than the lives of the people coping with these calamities.
People dealing with hurricanes Helene and Milton have the added misfortune of experiencing these catastrophes in the final weeks of a a nail biter presidential election.
FEMA DIVERTING FUNDS TO MIGRANTS?
The Washington Post a week ago delved into one of the the gems in North Carolina's disaster zone that seems to have gotten a lot of traction on social media;
"Former president Donald Trump doubled down on misinformation about Hurricane Helene in an appearance in this storm-ravaged state Friday, repeating the falsehood that the White House used disaster funds for migrants."
Of course, that's not true.
White House Spokesman Andrew Bates said flatly. "No disaster relief funding at all was used to support migrants housing and services. None. At. All."
Republican governors of South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Florida, along with the Democratic governor of North Carolina all say that they have been happy with FEMA's disaster response so far.
Of course, Trump and his followers are having none of that. They'll believe what they want to believe, as to them, the truth is besides the point. How dare those Republican governors contradict Dear Leader!
ORIGINS OF LIES
Like every wild, false story, it all begins with a grain of truth. FEMA has enough money and personnel to swoop into disaster zones to provide immediate aid in the aftermath of these terrible disasters.
However, the agency is in fact having trouble funding long term aid for disaster areas, such as reimbursing municipalities and states for road and infrastructure repairs they've done.
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| Hurricane Helene destruction in North Carolina. Trump's lies about the FEMA response could be making things even worse for these disaster victims. |
Congress has to appropriate more money for that piece of the FEMA pie. A stopgap spending bill that prevented a partial government shutdown omitted additional funding for FEMA. Congress is in a recess now during the campaign season.
However, there have been calls for Congress to reconvene in the coming days to pass a supplemental FEMA money bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson is against that idea.
I am certain that there's been FEMA missteps already in North Carolina and in other Helene disaster zones. You get that in an emergency. FEMA aid was probably slow to reach some victims, given how many were stranded in inaccessible mountains and hollows.
And there's probably bureaucracy frustrating people who intensely needed help last week, never mind right now.
It's also no secret that FEMA can be an annoying bureaucracy. Vermont Sen. Peter Welch has called for a federal audit of FEMA, citing administrative bloat and bureaucratic inefficiency.
But as far as FEMA ignoring desperate flood victims in North Carolina to coddle migrants, that's all stupid campaign lies. Most FEMA employees really want to help disaster victims, and are really good at their jobs.
CONSEQUENCE OF LIES
FEMA is not capping aid to victims at $750.00. They didn't block helicopters in North Carolina from searching for survivors. They're not diverting disaster aid to migrants. They didn't confiscate all the private aid that went to North Carolina. And the federal government is not withholding aid to areas where a majority of voters support Trump.
There are also even crazier notions that a surprisingly large segment of the population believe. These include the idea that the government is somehow controlling the strength and path of hurricanes and other disasters. I'm planning an upcoming, separate post on that whackadoodle aspect of all this lies circulating around.
Meanwhile, these FEMA lies could have real life consequences. It's not just campaign chatter.
The White House, its staff and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris keep clapping back hard at the misinformation around the Helene response. They are all warning that they falsehoods could keep hurricane victims from seeking the assistance they critically need.
I also worry about FEMA workers. That kind of MAGA lies about FEMA can encourage the real wackos among them to consider violence and attacks against these workers. They're already reportedly receiving death threats.
TikTok and X posts, along with other social media, is sadly rife with threats against federal workers just trying to provide some aid to disaster victims.
Also, talk about wasting resources! FEMA had to launch a web page to combat false rumors about its activities. I agree that they had to do it to attempt to make sure accurate information gets out there. But it's a waste of time and resources, when if Trump and his minions hadn't resorted to all these lies, that FEMA rumor-quashing page would not have been necessary.
Oh, by the way, there has been a case in which a president has diverted funds away from FEMA and steered the money toward his pet project. It wasn't the Biden administration.
It was none other than Donald Trump, who's now falsely whining about FEMA money being diverted.
As Politico reported, Trump in 2018 initially wanted to refuse disaster aid to California after some destructive wildfires
And talk about a bald faced transactional, corrupt mindset, an aide to Trump talked him into providing the aid by pointing out fire-damaged Orange County, California had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa.
President Biden responded to this news by saying, "You can't only help those in need if they voted for you."
Which makes me glad Biden was president when deep blue Vermont suffered a series of flood disasters in 2023 and 2024.
WHY WE KNOW LIES AREN'T TRUE
Anybody can go on social media and make up anything. The more provocative and outrageous, the more clicks and revenue some idiots can make. Truth is besides the point.
Say what you want about journalists - and there's a lot to say - but if FEMA was doing anything like what Trump and MAGA are accusing them of, it would be all over the news.
I was in journalism for decades. I know how they tend to think. Journalists love to get the scoop, of course, and they would shout from the rooftops if FEMA really was blocking aid. Or giving the aid to migrants instead of hurricane victims.
There's two reasons for that.
One, like anybody else, journalists really want to advance their careers. If a journalist broke a big story like that, there's potential for advancement, more income, heck maybe even a Pulitzer Prize.
Also, many journalists have a "comfort the afflicted, afflicted the comfortable" ethos. Many - not all -journalists love to stand up for powerless victims of the powerful. So if FEMA really were victimizing hurricane victims who have lost everything, they would be all over it.
Come to think of it, I guess that's why you've heard so often on the news Trump's accusations against FEMA described as lies, which they are. It's been all over the news. Because this is a case in many journalists are trying to comfort the hurricane victims being afflicted by Trump's falsehoods.
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