| Former President Donald Trump is deriding the Biden administration’s response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton in an effort to paint a picture of government incompetence in the final weeks of the presidential election. The only problem with this campaign strategy is that the substance of his attacks is categorically untrue, write Scott Waldman and Adam Aton. And they’re actively undermining hurricane recovery. Over the past two weeks, Trump has falsely claimed that there were “no helicopters, no rescue” for victims of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. He falsely alleged that Kamala Harris spent all the disaster funds on housing for migrants (set aside the fact that as vice president, she’s not in charge of federal spending). And he has claimed, with zero evidence, that the Biden administration went out of its way “to not help people in Republican areas” affected by Helene. President Joe Biden’s agencies “can’t get anything done properly, but I will make up for lost time, and do it right, when I get there,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Hold on, and vote these horrible ‘public servants’ out of office. They are incapable of doing the job.” Alex Conant, a GOP strategist who worked in former President George W. Bush’s White House during Hurricane Katrina, called Trump’s move “pretty risky.” “Trump is inserting controversy into this,” Conant said. “That turns off the independents and moderate voters who like his policies but don’t like the constant drama.” At least one Republican critic of Trump — outgoing Utah Sen. Mitt Romney — expressed frustration with the spectacle, comparing the post-hurricane misinformation campaign to baseless claims perpetuated by the Trump campaign that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Ohio. “I mean, he just makes it up,” Romney said Tuesday at the University of Utah. But that kind of misinformation can quickly take hold, morph into damaging conspiracy theories, and lead to real world consequences. In Ohio, the cats-and-dogs falsehood led to bomb threats that shuttered schools as local and state GOP officials called for calm. On Thursday, Biden said federal disaster workers responding to Hurricane Helene had received death threats as a result of the vitriol fueled by Trump’s comments. Don't forget the Motor City: The same day, Trump returned to more familiar terrain in a two-hour speech before the Detroit Economic Club, where he pledged to “revolutionize” the auto industry by making the interest on car loans tax deductible. But he again used the speech as an opportunity to characterize federal regulations on tailpipe emissions as a government mandate that will force people to buy electric vehicles. To the extent that harnessing anxieties in Michigan about the auto industry’s gradual (and perhaps painful) transition to producing more electric vehicles is a political rallying cry for Republicans, recent polls suggest Trump is edging ahead in the state. Still, Trump’s lead over Harris is well within the margin of error. It’s essentially a dead heat. Harris and Democrats have begun attacking Trump on his manufacturing record as president. That includes his threats to claw back billions in unspent Inflation Reduction Act funding.
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