Elon Musk amplifies hurricane disinformation while boosting Trump

Elon Musk is using his social media network to spread election conspiracy theories about U.S. disasters — just as online falsehoods are complicating the federal response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Musk has helped spread accusations that the Federal Emergency Management Agency “actively blocked” donations to victims of Helene and is “seizing goods … and locking them away to state they are their own” — allegations that FEMA officials call false and which run afoul of state and local Republican leaders’ praise for the assistance from Washington.

On his social network, X, Musk also amplified rumors that authorities in North Carolina had “taken control to stop people helping” stricken residents and accusations that sheriffs were threatening to arrest FEMA staff “if they hinder rescue and aid work.” Many of his allegations centered on the claim that immigrants had already depleted federal disaster funds, which FEMA has said is untrue.

“FEMA used up its budget ferrying illegals into the country instead of saving American lives. Treason,” Musk wrote without evidence on X, where he interspersed messages about hurricane damage with political attacks on Democrats.

Besides owning X, Musk is the world’s richest person, the CEO of Tesla and the chief executive of SpaceX, a federal contractor that is using its Starlink satellite service to restore communications to communities cut off by Helene’s massive flood damage in the Southeast. He’s also a top donor to former President Donald Trump, who has been using his own social media network to level baseless claims that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”

Without mentioning Musk or Trump, FEMA leaders said Tuesday that misinformation is causing problems for Helene survivors, some of whom are being dissuaded from seeking help. They said it’s also harming emergency responders, whose morale has taken a hit amid threats to their safety.

The wave of false conspiracy theories “is absolutely the worst I have ever seen,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters on a Tuesday morning call. The agency has long had a rumor control page to combat the kind of scams that often flourish after a disaster, she added. “I anticipated some of this, but not to the extent that we’re seeing.”

“It’s just really unfortunate that [people] continue to try to create this level of fear in these communities that is impeding our ability to do our job at the level that we need to do it, but we’re not going to let it deter us,” Criswell added. “We are going to continue to be in these communities and support them for whatever they need.”

FEMA and other agencies are assisting residents in states including Florida, Georgia and North Carolina after Helene swept through nearly two weeks ago. They’ll be doing the same again in Florida after Milton makes landfall Wednesday.

Republicans such as North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis have also called for an end to commentators spreading rumors and conspiracy theories.

“Many of these observations are not even from people on the ground,” Tillis said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “I believe that we have to stay focused on rescue operations, recovery operations, clearing operations, and we don’t need any of these distractions on the ground. It’s at the expense of the hard-working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their lives.”

Harris accused Trump and his allies of “playing political games” while lives are still at risk from storm damage.

“It’s profound and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness,” she said Tuesday on “The View.”

Musk’s misinformation campaign comes in the heat of the presidential election and includes political attacks as two of this year’s most pivotal swing states grapple with Helene’s aftermath — and as Florida prepares for what could be an even more cataclysmic landfall by Hurricane Milton on Wednesday.

Federal officials warned that Milton would bring life-threatening storm surge to large swaths of Florida’s vulnerable west coast, with the first tropical storm force winds arriving on land as early as Wednesday morning. The Category 4 storm clocked in at 155 mph as of Tuesday afternoon. It has already set a record as the third-fastest intensifying tropical cyclone on record, National Weather Service Director Ken Graham told reporters Monday in a call.

The biggest worries include concerns about Milton’s predicted path into or near Tampa Bay, a region of more than 3 million people that hasn’t suffered a direct strike from a major hurricane since 1921. Losses from such a storm could total hundreds of billions of dollars, regional planners have warned.

“It’s a very serious situation,” Graham said.

Counties up and down the Florida Gulf Coast have ordered mandatory evacuations, amid forecasts that Milton could bring 10 to 15 feet of storm surge into communities still recovering from Helene’s deluge less than two weeks ago. Many of those survivors will face a massive challenge to rebuilding their homes and lives after they return.

Falsehoods about natural disasters complicate the logistics of disaster response, which can hinge on survivors cooperating with a patchwork of authorities, the FEMA leaders said this week. They warned that conspiracy theories have already hampered the work of rescue and recovery.

Keith Turi, FEMA’s acting associate administrator for response and recovery, ticked through false rumors — that FEMA was “confiscating supplies” or only providing $750 in total assistance to storm victims — that he said are already harming the agency’s ability to help survivors.

“The misinformation is extremely damaging to the response efforts from Helene and from any disaster,” he said. “It is reducing the likelihood that survivors will come to FEMA in a trusting way to register for assistance.”

Turi said governors, many of whom in the affected area are Republican, have helped cut through some of the inaccuracies. “We’ve had nothing but positive engagement with them and coordination and also recognition that we all need to work together for combating misinformation and making sure that everybody has the best information that they need,” he said.

With hard-hit areas cut off from communications and authentic accounts of disaster response limited, Musk and other far-right figures are using misinformation and conspiracies to fill the void, said Michael Rothschild, a conspiracy theory expert and author of the book “The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything.”

“No one else is telling you anything, so you’re going with the information that is being put in front of you and that already kind of ties into the things that you already believe,” Rothschild said. “So if you already believe that the federal government is corrupt and that Kamala Harris would put her thumb on the scale to interfere with disaster relief efforts to kill off Trump voters, well, you’re going to share things that reaffirm that belief.”

Musk has primed an enormous audience to think of him as a “forbidden truth-teller” so his falsehoods quickly become amplified, Rothschild said.

‘What we found out was actually happening’

Republicans, Democrats and nonpartisan officials have pushed back on the claims from Musk — as well those from Trump, who has gone even further and falsely accused Democrats of blocking aid to Republican-leaning areas. GOP officials in those areas say federal agencies and officials have been in close contact.

Musk’s amplification of conspiracies comes as he prepares to hit the campaign trail for Trump in the next month before November’s election, with a focus on Pennsylvania.

FEMA has issued official responses to some conspiracy theories, including the claim repeated by Musk and Trump that the agency ran out of money due to migrants: “This is false. No money is being diverted from disaster response needs.”

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, slammed both Trump and Musk for spreading conspiracy theories and false claims.

“As we continue our unprecedented response to Hurricane Helene, the nation is beginning to understand that impacted areas have been the target of a relentless vortex of disinformation, dialed up by bad actors and platforms like X,” Cooper wrote on Musk’s social network. “Politicians, billionaires and grifters who peddle lies during a time of crisis should be held accountable.”

On Friday, after Musk complained that “belligerent government incompetence” by FEMA and the Federal Aviation Administration was halting helicopter deliveries of Starlink devices, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeted in response: “No one is shutting down the airspace and FAA doesn’t block legitimate rescue and recovery flights.” He also invited Musk to “give me a call.”

Buttigieg later chalked up Musk’s comments to a misunderstanding over the process of flying into a disaster zone.

“What we found out was actually happening was the FAA was not closing down any airspace,” Buttigieg said Sunday on MSNBC. “But there was an issue with pilots who were helping get Starlink equipment to where it needed to be, having the right information. We worked that out with local authorities and were able to take care of it.”

After their conversation Friday, Musk thanked Buttigieg on X: “Just wanted to note that Sec Buttigieg is on the ball.” And in a Monday interview with Tucker Carlson on X, Musk credited Buttigieg with waiving “insane” flight planning requirements.

“I want to give Buttigieg some credit here,” Musk said. “When I complained about it, he reacted in a very levelheaded way. And he reached out to me, and he called me. And we discussed the issue, got to the bottom of it, and he fixed it.”

Musk and X did not respond to a request for comment.

A Transportation Department official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the exchange, suggested that Buttigieg did not intervene personally to clear the way for the flights. Rather, the official said that the chat was mostly walking Musk through how the flight restrictions and airport closures work and providing him with information for whom he could contact.

The FAA has a system of notices that tell pilots — who are supposed to check these notices before flying — where they can and can’t fly. Pilots with legitimate relief business can request to fly there anyway, a process that had been well-established by the time Musk tweeted.

Becca Gallas, director of North Carolina’s Department of Transportation aviation division, said coordination among multiple agencies to manage the flight restrictions and notification requirements had been going on “well in advance of any external influence.”

Gallas said NCDOT did not change those procedures or clear any bureaucratic red tape to enable the Starlink and supply relief flights.

‘Stop this junk’

Internationally, Musk and his social media company have faced penalties for what other governments have described as disinformation and hate speech.

Brazil’s top court this year banned X from the country after the company allegedly failed to deactivate accounts that spread illegal disinformation and hate speech. After disputing that order as an attack on free speech, X removed some accounts and is trying to get the ban lifted.

The European Union has also charged X with violating the bloc’s social media laws, accusing it of facilitating disinformation designed to mislead the public.

In the U.S., some Republican state lawmakers have pleaded for conservative influencers to resist spreading falsehoods.

“PLEASE help stop this junk,” GOP North Carolina state Sen. Kevin Corbin implored his Facebook followers on Oct. 3, citing false stories such as Antarctic weather control, land grabs over lithium and FEMA stealing donations.

A fellow lawmaker had received 15 calls in one day about untrue rumors, he added. “I’m growing a bit weary of intentional distractions,” Corbin said.

The next day, Musk reposted some of those same falsehoods to his 200 million followers, with one word: “Wow.”

Zack Colman, Oriana Pawlyk and Mike Lee contributed to this report.