Donald Trump and JD Vance are lying about the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene.pinaswin88
“Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants,” Trump said at a rally in Michigan last week, telling his audience that the agency responsible for disaster response had abandoned victims of the hurricane.
“They promised $750 to American citizens who have lost everything,” Vance said at a rally in Butler, Pa., over the weekend, suggesting that the government had given only a pittance to those affected by the hurricane. In truth, the $750 was an upfront payment to help cover the cost of food, water, medicine and other emergency supplies. Victims are still eligible for additional payments totaling thousands of dollars to repair damage to their homes and other personal property.
It would be easy to dismiss these lies as mere MAGA theater, but they are far more destructive than that.
First and foremost, the lying degrades the ability of the federal government to respond to the disaster. Clear lines of communication are paramount during a crisis like the one facing western North Carolina. When Trump and Vance lie about the extent of the federal response, they disrupt the flow of information with noise and interference. What’s more, to the extent that ordinary Americans take Trump and his running mate at their word, their lies may keep actual victims of the hurricane from claiming the benefits they’re entitled to. Compare this performance with that of Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey in 2012, who worked with President Barack Obama to deliver as much assistance as possible to people affected by Hurricane Sandy.
Christie, it should be said, is all but estranged from the Republican Party these days.
To step back for a moment, there are two paths you can take from this observation about the power of political lying to undermine the ability of government to do its job. One is an analysis of the ideological underpinnings of this particular set of false claims. Remember, Trump and Vance lead a political movement that is, no matter what they say, opposed at its core to the very notion of public goods and of a state that acts for the public interest. It is not a coincidence that Vance’s chief benefactor in politics is Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist and vocal critic of democracy.
Instead, as Trump sees it, the goal of the state is to be a pathway for the upward redistribution of wealth to him, his friends and his allies. This is why his signature domestic policy for a potential second term — next to mass deportations and large, ruinous tariffs — is a gargantuan upper-income tax cut tailored to the wealthiest people in the country.
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