Politics

Trump’s conspiracy theories about Hurricane Helene are hurting relief efforts

Published

2 years ago

November 11, 2024

Trump’s conspiracy theories about Hurricane Helene are hurting relief efforts

As emergency relief agencies scramble to respond to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene Donald Trump and his allies have pushed conspiracy theories about the federal response that officials have warned are hindering relief efforts.

“STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods,” North Carolina state Sen. Kevin Corbin, a Republican, wrote in a post on Facebook. “Example: FEMA is stealing money from donations, body bags ordered but government has denied, bodies not being buried, government is controlling the weather from Antarctica, government is trying to get lithium from WNC, stacks of bodies left at hospitals, and on and on and on … It is just a distraction to people trying to do their job.”

The spread of misinformation about Helene has been staggering, in large part due to the Republican presidential nominee’s attempts to politicize the disaster. In the past week, Trump has falsely claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has no money for disaster relief because its funds were spent on “illegal migrants,” and that Vice President Kamala Harris “stole” FEMA funds for undocumented immigrants to encourage them to vote for Democrats. He baselessly accused the administration of “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas” — a move he himself was reported to have considered as presidentdue to the state’s Democratic leaningsafter wildfires devastated California in 2018. Trump also claimed that President Joe Biden had not spoken to Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgiaone of the hardest-hit states, an assertion that Kemp himself disputed.

Those lies have been amplified by the likes of billionaire Elon Muskprofessional conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and the scandal-plagued GOP nominee for North Carolina governor, Mark Robinson. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a staunch Trump ally, also alluded to a ludicrous conspiracy theory that Hurricane Helene was a man-made weather event — a claim rooted in antisemitic conspiracy theories, as my colleague Ja’han Jones has pointed out — in a purported attempt to influence the election against Republicans.

Disaster relief organizations and lawmakers from Trump’s own party are urging people to stop spreading unsubstantiated rumors about relief efforts. The American Red Cross issued a statement disputing false claims about its response, saying such misinformation “disrupts our ability to deliver critical aid and affects the disaster workers who have put their own lives on hold to assist those in need.” FEMA even resorted to launching a misinformation page on its website to debunk rumors about its Helene response.

The White House slammed the conspiracy theories about Helene recovery efforts in a memo on Friday, saying that Republicans are spreading “bald-faced lies” and using the tragedy “to lie and divide us.”

Clarissa-Jan Lim

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for BLN Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.

Politics

World Cup fuels ticketing reform demands

Published

4 hours ago

June 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Demands are growing for a political reckoning over ticket scams at the World Cup — and beyond.

The National Independent Venue Association and Fan Alliance, organizations representing and advocating for entertainment venues and artists respectively, sent a joint letter to Congress on Thursday, calling on lawmakers to ban speculative and ghost tickets, cases where resellers flog tickets they don’t actually have.

The letter — addressed to Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer — includes nearly two dozen accounts of fans who say they were scammed out of thousands of dollars trying to get tickets to the World Cup, which began last week. The groups are also asking fans to share their own stories with elected officials via the Fix the Tix Fan Action Center that launched last week.

“Every one of these stories erodes the public’s faith that consumers should and will be protected from fraud,” NIVA Executive Director Stephen Parker and Fan Alliance founder Donald Cohen wrote. “We urge Congress to work with us to prevent fraud like this in the future and finally enact ticket resale consumer protections that will protect Americans and ensure affordability.”

The letter flagged fans like Dacy Gillespie, who bought World Cup tickets for her sons on Christmas, only to learn on match day — months later — that the seller couldn’t deliver them. And Skylie Shore, who Parker and Cohen said spent well over $6,000 on tickets to the Scotland-Haiti match on June 13, but was forced to wait outside the stadium because she couldn’t access them as fans marched in on gameday.

“These examples reveal a consistent pattern: consumer deception, speculative ticket sales, and broken-hearted American families at the hands of resale ticketing companies like StubHub,” Parker and Cohen wrote.

In a statement, StubHub spokesperson Jack Sterne said that the platform does not allow speculative ticket sales, and blamed FIFA for users’ difficulty in accessing their tickets.

“We understand that attending the World Cup represents a significant investment in time and money, and we take our responsibility to every fan who books through our platform seriously,” Sterne said in a statement. “Many of the issues fans are facing trace back to the event organizer’s technology infrastructure, newly announced transfer restrictions, and a new app that was launched just a month ago.”

In response, FIFA said in a statement that the organization “can guarantee the validity and delivery of tickets purchased through its official platforms” and that FIFA.com/tickets “is the official ticket sales channel” for the tournament.

NIVA and Fan Alliance are urging congressional leadership to place universal price-gouging limits on ticket resale, enact stringent fines on perpetrators and a violation-reporting mechanism for ticket scams, and require secondary ticketing platforms to produce data on ticket fulfillment and consumer complaints.

The groups are not the only ones monitoring for evidence of shady ticket practices. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway issued a consumer guidance in advance of the tournament, urging match-goers to beware of fraud and promising to hold offenders accountable. And the FBI in May put out a public service announcement, warning fans against purchasing tickets on copycat websites modeled on FIFA’s.

“With the World Cup coming to Kansas City, excitement is high and, unfortunately, so is the potential for fraud,” Hanaway said in her statement. “Missourians should be able to enjoy this once-in-a-generation event without fear of being deceived. My office will hold accountable anyone who seeks to exploit our families, and we stand ready to assist anyone who encounters suspicious activity.”