Former President Donald Trump has been dialing up the misinformation on the campaign trail, doubling down on the debunked claim that Haitian migrants are stealing and eating pets in Ohio and issuing a series of incorrect insinuations denigrating the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene.
(Both examples have led to pushback by even normally permissive mainstream media outlets like CNN and The New York Times, which in these recent cases have outlined Trump’s misrepresentations in standalone “fact check” articles.)
Another thing these Trump misrepresentations have in common is that they have been refuted by top-level Republicans, a group even more permissive of Trump’s habitual fabrications than the Times.
The Republican Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, debunked the Haitians-eating-pets narrative, expressing frustration with the harm those lies caused in his state, and four of the Republican governors in the Southern states hit hardest by Hurricane Helene have contradicted Trump’s tales of government malfeasance and ineptitude by FEMA, instead reporting they have had good and timely responses from the federal government.
The state that saw the most catastrophic impact from Helene was North Carolina, which has a Democratic Governor, Roy Cooper.
Appealing to his ‘America First’ base, Trump accused the federal government of virtually abandoning North Carolina residents, offering those whose lives have been upended, their houses destroyed, only $750 in assistance. (The assertion that $750 represents all the aid available is not true; the $750 figure is an emergency aid packet designed to address immediate needs like food, water and baby formula.)
Trump then purposefully contrasted the $750 he mispresented as the total aid available to affected North Carolinians with foreign aid the U.S. supplies to nations around the globe — “tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of,” as Trump put it, implying that foreign aid is wasted and Americans are neglected due to it.
During disasters, it’s critical to avoid spreading false information.
Rumor: FEMA will only provide $750 to #Helene survivors.
Fact: $750 Serious Needs Assistance is only ONE type of assistance available to help pay for essential emergency supplies.
https://t.co/Z5vxuBTths pic.twitter.com/W4B0NyROgV
— FEMA (@fema) October 4, 2024
As VP and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris confirmed on her visit to storm-hit Georgia, in addition to the immediate $750 aid for daily essentials, “FEMA is also providing tens of thousands more dollars for folks to help them be able to deal with home repair, to be able to cover a deductible when and if they have insurance, and also hotel costs.”
The larger amount that Harris describes can mean as much as $42,500 in aid to a North Carolina resident devastated by Hurricane Helene. Trump misrepresented the potential aid available by $41,750.
Trump also failed to mention the U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s pledge to supply North Carolina with $100 million in Helene-recovery funds.
DOT personnel are on the ground across multiple states working hand-in-hand with state and local leaders to help communities. Our purpose is to get things moving again quickly and safely so people can rebuild and recover. pic.twitter.com/ofUa4k6nOM
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) October 2, 2024
In NC, Trump also insinuated without evidence that the Republican-leaning counties were purposely receiving less assistance and aid than bluer, more Democratic-leaning areas. (The accusation mirrors an accusation recently leveled at Trump about his allegedly withholding California wildfire aid until it was shown that the areas in need voted for him in sufficient numbers.)