US hurricanes followed by Republican storm of misinformation about relief efforts
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and supporters spread falsehoods about federal response and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris
Incessant rains and flooding battered Florida on Thursday after Hurricane Milton made landfall in the US as a Category 3 storm, leaving at least 12 dead and more than three million homes and businesses without power – two weeks after Hurricane Helene claimed more than 220 lives across six states, including Florida, North Carolina and Georgia.
Typically, US disaster relief is a bipartisan effort. But the back-to-back hurricanes have collided with this overheated election season, and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again allies have relentlessly criticised the federal response, propagating bizarre claims and unfounded conspiracy theories.
Trump has sought to leverage the grim situation to intensify his anti-immigration rhetoric while also labelling US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris – his Democratic rival for the White House – as “very irresponsive” to the crisis.
“They have no money. You know where they gave the money? To illegal immigrants coming in,” Trump repeated during a rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, implying that the administration was spending disaster relief funds of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on immigrants.
The misinformation was so pervasive that Biden condemned Trump on Thursday for his “reckless, irresponsible and relentless disinformation and outright lies that continue to flow”.
“Get a life, man,” Biden told his predecessor during a briefing on the government’s response to the hurricanes.
