Hurricanes Helene and Milton are expected to join the grim ranks of Katrina and Sandy as $30 billion-plus tragedies. However, in addition to the damage left in their paths of destruction were the viral conspiracies that infected airwaves and social media feeds in the aftermath.
Donald Trump, JD Vance, Elon Musk, and Marjorie Taylor Greene‘s baseless allegations that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is channeling funds to illegal migrants or even controlling the weather are deeply insulting—and, as we’ve seen, dangerous—to first responders like me.
However, while it would be easy to dismiss Trump’s demented accusations as simple propaganda, there’s a troubling grain of truth: American agencies like FEMA are, in fact, broke—not because they’ve been diverting funds to “ferry illegals,” but because they have been critically underfunded for decades.
Years of offering stopgap funding instead of securing long-term financial stability for once-revered federal programs have left critical agencies powerless to …