Fact check: Trump repeats debunked lies about FEMA’s hurricane response during North Carolina visit

Former President Donald Trump used a Monday visit to North Carolina to repeat debunked lies about the federal response to Hurricane Helene.

Former President Donald Trump used a Monday visit to North Carolina to repeat debunked lies about the federal response to Hurricane Helene. Speaking to reporters in a hard-hit community near Asheville, Trump kept repeating a false claim that was widely debunked when he made it earlier in October – his assertion that the Federal Emergency Management Agency took money that was supposed to go to disaster relief and instead spent it on migrants who entered the country illegally, leaving the agency with no funds to help Americans. “It’s all gone. They’ve spent it on illegal migrants,” Trump said. He also said: “Why did they spend hundreds of millions of dollars on something that they were not supposed to be spending it on?” And he said, “They were not supposed to be spending the money on taking in illegal migrants. Maybe so they could vote in the election, because that – a lot of people are saying that’s why they’re doing it. I don’t know, I hope that’s not why they’re doing it.” The Republican presidential nominee said in the same remarks that now “they don’t have any money for the people that live here.” And at a rally later in the day in Greenville, he said, “You didn’t get the proper support from this administration. They spent their money on illegal migrants, they spent their money. They didn’t have any money left for North Carolina.” These claims are false in at least four ways. First, there is zero basis for Trump’s suggestion that FEMA or the Biden administration might be running some sort of scheme to get undocumented immigrants to vote illegally in the 2024 election.