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As emergency relief agencies scramble to respond to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene, Donald Trump and his allies have pushed conspiracy theories about the federal response that officials have warned are hindering relief efforts.
“STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods,” North Carolina state Sen. Kevin Corbin, a Republican, wrote in a post on Facebook. “Example: FEMA is stealing money from donations, body bags ordered but government has denied, bodies not being buried, government is controlling the weather from Antarctica, government is trying to get lithium from WNC, stacks of bodies left at hospitals, and on and on and on ... It is just a distraction to people trying to do their job.”
The spread of misinformation about Helene has been staggering, in large part due to the Republican presidential nominee’s attempts to politicize the disaster. In the past week, Trump has falsely claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has no money for disaster relief because its funds were spent on “illegal migrants,” and that Vice President Kamala Harris “stole” FEMA funds for undocumented immigrants to encourage them to vote for Democrats. He baselessly accused the administration of “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas” — a move he himself was reported to have considered as president, due to the state’s Democratic leanings, after wildfires devastated California in 2018. Trump also claimed that President Joe Biden had not spoken to Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, one of the hardest-hit states, an assertion that Kemp himself disputed.
Those lies have been amplified by the likes of billionaire Elon Musk, professional conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and the scandal-plagued GOP nominee for North Carolina governor, Mark Robinson. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a staunch Trump ally, also alluded to a ludicrous conspiracy theory that Hurricane Helene was a man-made weather event — a claim rooted in antisemitic conspiracy theories, as my colleague Ja'han Jones has pointed out — in a purported attempt to influence the election against Republicans.
Disaster relief organizations and lawmakers from Trump’s own party are urging people to stop spreading unsubstantiated rumors about relief efforts. The American Red Cross issued a statement disputing false claims about its response, saying such misinformation “disrupts our ability to deliver critical aid and affects the disaster workers who have put their own lives on hold to assist those in need.” FEMA even resorted to launching a misinformation page on its website to debunk rumors about its Helene response.
The White House slammed the conspiracy theories about Helene recovery efforts in a memo on Friday, saying that Republicans are spreading “bald-faced lies” and using the tragedy “to lie and divide us.”