Trump exploits the disaster caused by Hurricane Helene for political gain and faces opposition

RP ONLINE Trump exploits the disaster caused by Hurricane Helene for political gain and faces opposition Article by RP ONLINE • 25 minutes • 3 minutes reading time Washington. The big lie, little lies and fictitious stories – Donald Trump is creating an alternative reality in the election campaign. With worrying consequences in the real world. Actor and father of Angelina Jolie, Jon Voight, supports Donald Trump. He had already stood out as a supporter during Trump's first presidency. Kevin Corbin, Republican Senator from North Carolina, has had enough. "Dear friends, could I ask you for a small favor?" he appeals to Donald Trump's supporters in the swing state that was hit hard by Hurricane Helene. "Could you please help stop these conspiracy theories about the flooding in Western North Carolina from spreading on Facebook and online?" As a local official, Corbin knows how much the rumors are hampering rescue efforts in the already shocked region. At least 229 people have died in the six affected states in the southeast of the USA, and hundreds are still missing. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is carrying out one of its largest operations in history. It says it has already provided over $110 million in emergency aid to those affected. More than 700 FEMA employees are deployed in North Carolina, along with thousands of local search and rescue workers, the National Guard and the US military. The devastating hurricane was followed by a storm of disinformation and propaganda that is making the work of the helpers more difficult. It is being fueled by Donald Trump, who is making fact-free accusations against FEMA, the White House and his opponent in the election campaign, Kamala Harris. At his rallies, in interviews and on social media, the candidate paints a picture in which the government appears completely incompetent and corrupt. Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on September 26, 2024. At the weekend in Pennsylvania, for example, he claimed that the strained financial situation of the emergency management agency was not due to the frequency of extreme weather events, but to the vice president. "Kamala spent the entire FEMA budget, billions of dollars, on housing illegal immigrants." This claim is false, as Harris has no authority over FEMA funds and migrants have nothing to do with it. At a press conference in the also affected swing state of Georgia, Trump claimed that Joe Biden's administration was standing by and watching "Americans drown in North Carolina and other states." In an interview with Fox News, Trump said that those affected, most of whom live in Republican-dominated areas, "don't get any water, they don't get anything." The disinformation is being reinforced by X owner Elon Musk, who personally spread Trump's lies in more than a dozen tweets. The "Charlotte Observer" was outraged in a commentary about the politicization of the disaster. "Shame on Donald Trump," wrote North Carolina's largest newspaper. The tragedy surrounding Hurricane Helene is being "made worse by political lies." The Republican governors of Georgia, Brian Kemp, and South Carolina, Henry McMaster, also felt compelled to publicly contradict Trump. Both explicitly praised the support of the US government. The White House described the claims as "blatant lies" and "poison." Spokesman Andrew Bates emphasized that it is not about politics, but about helping people. The fact that the agitation has real consequences has already been shown in the past. It began with the "big lie" about the allegedly stolen elections, which led to radicalized Trump supporters storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. More than 140 police officers suffered injuries, some of them serious. Five died from long-term effects. In Arizona, he staged an audit of the results from the populous county, which was based on nothing but unfounded claims. The heads of the relevant authorities received death threats and had to be placed under police protection. Most recently, in the presidential debate, the candidate incited hatred against Haitian immigrants who were eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. Since then, a state of emergency has prevailed there. For Trump critic George Conway, Trump's agitation with big and small lies is methodical. "They are taken directly from the script of the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler." Untruths are now called "alternative facts". No matter how outrageous a lie is, it just has to be repeated often enough until people believe it. “A trick that all autocrats use.”