As Americans across the Southeast continue to reel from the devastating one-two punch of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, one man says the storm-related disinformation campaign peddled by Donald Trump and other Republicans is tearing his family apart.
A man identifying himself only as Anthony called into Sirius XM’s “Dan Abrams Show” this week to share the story of his father-in-law, whose property near Ashville, North Carolina, was badly damaged by Helene. Despite the destruction, Anthony said his father-in-law is unwilling to accept assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“He has refused all FEMA help because he’s a hardcore Trumper,” Anthony told Abrams. “He literally believes that if he accepts anything from FEMA, they’re going to take his house.”
Disinformation about the Biden administration’s response to the storms across the Southeast has been running rampant on social media. One rumor making the rounds falsely claims that if a person applies for disaster assistance, FEMA could confiscate their property.
In recent days, Trump has doubled down on other baseless conspiracy theories about the government’s response, pushing the false claim that money is being diverted from disaster aid to help migrants. Anthony told Abrams that his father-in-law lost “almost everything” in the storm and, days later, still doesn’t have access to necessary resources like food. Anthony said that despite showing his father-in-law the facts, he refuses to listen to anyone who isn’t Trump. “We’ve sent him all the FEMA bulletins,” Anthony said. “We’ve sent him all the stuff from the fact-checkers. He doesn’t believe it. He thinks it’s all — he just believes Trump. … It’s a cult. He’s a cult member. I’m sorry to say it. He’s a cult member and he’s my father-in-law and it sucks.”
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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