As North Carolina reels from Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton touches down in Florida, some Republican officials are walking a tightrope: spreading disinformation about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) while at the same time trying to connect their constituents to the disaster relief it provides. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is using the current administration’s response to the hurricanes as a campaign talking point.
Rumors, misinformation (the spread of false information) and disinformation (the deliberate spread of false information) run rampant on social media during natural disasters and moments of crisis. Following Hurricane Helene, conspiracy theories circulated about “weather machines” controlled by a Jewish cabal and some claimed that the hurricane was a part of a government plot to seize land from victims of the devastation. Weather control claims have proliferated in recent years, with today’s hurricane control devices recognizable as yesterday’s “Jewish space lasers” starting fires in Hawaii. — one of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s more colorful claims.
The Georgia Republican and MAGA celebrity stopped short of invoking a specifically Jewish conspiracy this time around. “Yes they can control the weather,” she tweeted on Oct. 3. In attempting to substantiate her claims, Greene posted several memes citing applications for patents for various inventions, such as cloud-seeding technology and experimental, theoretical storm control devices.
Some X users have also been spreading the claim that FEMA’s financial support to victims is limited to a $750 loan, which the agency would expect to be paid back for. This claim is patently untrue. FEMA’s disinformation debunking page has a section dedicated to this claim, which clarifies that the only time FEMA aid money is ever expected to be returned is when it is fronted to an individual or a small business ahead of their private insurance payout (as in, stopgap funding that is expected to be returned when the victim is themselves reimbursed by their insurance company).
This claim has also been debunked by multiple mainstream media outlets such as ABC News, CNN, Vox and Al Jazeera. Even Neil Cavuto of FOX News has denounced the spread of this harmful disinformation by online personalities, including Trump. “Whether it’s perpetrated by a politician or someone you think is someone of note and authority, it is wrong. It is bull. And it cannot be tolerated,” Cavuto said on his Oct. 10 program.
“It is reducing the likelihood that survivors will come to FEMA with a trusted way to register for assistance,” Keith Turi, an acting associate administrator for Response and Recovery, told reporters earlier this week. “That misinformation is directly impacting our ability to help people, and it’s unfortunate because these individuals have been through extremely traumatic times.”
A caller on “The Dan Abrams Show” on SiriusXM said that his father-in-law just outside of Asheville, North Carolina “was badly damaged by Hurricane Helene. And he has refused all FEMA help because he’s a hardcore Trumper. He literally believes that if he accepts anything from FEMA, they’re going to take his house. He lost almost everything, and he’s refusing all help from the federal government and complaining to us that he doesn’t have food, that he doesn’t have the stuff he needs and yet he won’t accept the help.”
Even local Republicans have expressed exasperation. In a statement, Rep. Chuck Edwards of North Carolina said that the conspiracy theories, “while certainly frustrating, have done more harm than most people may realize. The spreading of falsehoods has diverted state, local, and federal resources from helping NC-11 [his congressional district] recover toward refuting hearsay and repeatedly trying to set the record straight.”
At the same time, some lawmakers whose constituents were affected by Helene have been engaged in a balancing act — between sharing disaster response resources and helping connect victims to federal support through FEMA on the one hand, and bashing the organization and insisting it has prioritized immigrant resettlement over disaster response on the other.
America First Legal, a nonprofit organization that describes itself as “the long-awaited answer to the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union],” published a thread on X (formerly Twitter) on Sept. 30, asserting that FEMA prioritized immigrants over disaster relief and claiming that over the last four years the agency had become “an illegal alien resettlement agency.”
Stephen Miller, Trump’s former senior adviser, serves as the president and executive director of America First Legal, according to a 2022 filing. The group’s website boasts that its board of directors includes Miller, as well as Trump’s former acting Attorney General Reed Rubinstein and Budget Director Russell Vought.
FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program provides funds to nongovernmental organizations, which handle resettlement efforts in the United States. Following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, groups like Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (renamed Global Refuge in January 2024), Church World Service and the International Rescue Committee led resettlement efforts for Afghan refugees fleeing persecution from the Taliban, doing so despite Trump administration budget cuts. President Joe Biden has since rebuilt the U.S. refugee system, but an election year and hurricane season have turned it into a political fulcrum.
Using the Shelter and Services Program as a boogeyman, Trump and several Republican lawmakers are falsely claiming that FEMA has redirected disaster relief funds toward resettlement.
The funds for the Shelter and Services Program are appropriated by Congress and its activities are carried out alongside U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The funding for disaster relief and the funding for the Shelter and Services Program exist in two separate pots. The only evidence presented that disaster relief funds have been redirected toward resettlement is that the Shelter and Services Program exists. Congress decides on funding for these programs, and both parties have set aside FEMA funds specifically for migrant care in the past.
Elon Musk shared the thread from America First Legal on Oct. 1. Musk has been a vocal spreader of disinformation around Hurricane Helene while at the same time engaging in relief efforts via Starlink (accessible if victims and relief workers purchase a Starlink kit). Several GOP lawmakers then picked up and repeated this narrative following the Oct. 2 announcement by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas that FEMA was going to run out of the funds allocated for hurricane relief this season. These false claims have quickly morphed into assertions that FEMA was out of money because they allocated it for resettlement when it was meant for disaster relief.
On Oct. 2, one day after announcing her co-sponsorship of bipartisan legislation to authorize additional funding for FEMA, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, whose district in Florida was hit by the hurricane, tweeted: “$941 MILLION of FEMA funding went to illegals. It’s unacceptable and should be illegal. This could be used to house Pinellas residents!”
That same day, Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida appeared on Fox News on the ground in North Carolina, where he claimed FEMA had reassigned disaster relief personnel to instead work on immigration resettlement. Mills worked delivering food, water and other supplies to affected communities in North Carolina, partnering with Mercury One, a nonprofit charity started by right-wing political commentator Glenn Beck. Fox News Digital described Mercury One as a private helicopter company. While Mercury One does charter helicopters for disaster relief, it is in fact a general charity organization and not to be confused with a rescue organization.
On Oct. 4, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina announced legislation to terminate FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program. On Oct. 7 she retweeted a post from FEMA sharing official channels for crisis communications around Hurricane Milton. Similarly, Luna has consistently retweeted official communications from Pinella County concerning both hurricanes.
As of Oct. 9, New Lines found eight posts on X that had received over 50,000 likes and mentioned both “hurricane” and “illegal.” Three posts that mentioned both “hurricane” and “illegals” received over 50,000 likes. New Lines found 15 posts receiving over 50,000 likes which mentioned both “FEMA” and “illegal.” Six mentioned “FEMA” and “illegals.”
These posts and many more like them have received millions of views. Sorting them by the likes they have received gives a useful insight into the amplifiers of these narratives, revealing that among the key spreaders of disinformation around Helene are right-wing social media personalities like Charlie Kirk, as well as Musk and several GOP lawmakers.
On the campaign trail, Trump has been spreading false claims about how the Biden administration has responded to Hurricane Helene — from claiming that Biden was dodging calls from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, to accusing relief workers of refusing to help Republicans and stating that there were no helicopters or rescue operations in North Carolina.
Trump has leveled numerous false claims about ongoing disaster relief efforts, but the one that appears to fit most neatly within his ongoing campaign is the accusation that FEMA spent all its funds housing illegal immigrants so that they would vote for Kamala Harris. He also claimed a billion dollars went “missing” from FEMA’s budget and was “stolen.”
According to FEMA’s most recent monthly report regarding its disaster relief fund, $35 billion is set aside for disaster relief this fiscal year, and this will likely increase when lawmakers set aside additional funds soon. Congress has appropriated $650 million for the Shelter and Services Program in the fiscal year starting in 2024.
Through his scattered remarks, Trump is echoing some very dangerous conspiracy theories and putting a natural disaster to use as part of his presidential campaign.
In an effort to combat the disinformation surrounding the hurricane, FEMA has taken the step of publishing an entire website, complete with a search engine, for individuals to search terms and check claims. While some of the claims border on the absurd, others have proliferated and taken on a life of their own. Social media users have incorrectly claimed that FEMA officials put in place physical blockades to the disaster-impacted areas, leading some individuals to use violent language against FEMA officials.
These users have amplified claims of retaliatory violence against FEMA, painting a picture of something like a low-level insurgency being fought in the disaster-struck areas. One X user, with a verified account, claimed (with no evidence) to have information about “five confirmed FEMA kills” by a U.S. Marine Corps sniper. That post alone has, as of writing, over 1.2 million views. This incendiary speech was amplified by other X-verified accounts, some of which made comments about FEMA’s supposed overreach after the 2023 wildfire disaster on Maui.
In another instance, a video of a North Carolina National Guard helicopter attempting to land to deliver a generator and blowing around debris and relief supplies before aborting circulated online as proof of federal agents intentionally disrupting volunteer relief efforts. (The North Carolina National Guard has since responded with an apology, stating that the crew has been grounded and an investigation is underway.)
Offline and on the ground, NPR reported that relief work has been far less politicized than online, and that those affected have very real and nuanced concerns regarding ongoing disaster relief efforts. Similarly, several officials have condemned the disinformation, including Republicans.
Kevin Corbin, a North Carolina Republican state senator, voiced his frustration, writing on Facebook: “I’ve been working on this 12 hours a day since it started and I’m growing a bit weary of intentional distractions from the main job …. which is to help our citizens in need.”
The noise created in online spaces threatens to drown out these concerns while elected leaders and political candidates seek to turn disaster relief into political theater. Moustafa Ayad, executive director for Africa, the Middle East and Asia at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told New Lines that “The speed and impact of the disinformation, outright lies and threats” seen over the course of a week felt almost like “a drumbeat of demagoguery online, uniting a contingent of conspiracy theorists and partisan influencers attacking federal and local officials for their politics, faiths, gender.”
Natural disasters were once treated with some level of bipartisanship, but this election has seen the opposite. With Hurricane Milton touching down in Florida, it remains likely that a second wave of misinformation will muddy efforts to rebuild as candidates campaign atop the devastation.
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