Claims that Federal Emergency Management Agency funding was diverted to migrants, leaving a shortfall, as Trump World is saying, are lies. But as the saying goes, if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. And when a candidate for vice president admits that he would not let the facts get in the way of a good story if it worked to his side's benefit, it seems as if we are seeing the end of truth. Lying in politics is not confined to a single political party, nor is it new, but this does not mean that the very real dangers it can lead to can be ignored.
This week's frenzy of MAGA misinformation has been that the agency responsible for federal disaster relief has run out of money. Donald Trump has been the main source of these false claims, including that the White House was withholding aid from Republican parts of the area devastated by Hurricane Helene. The ex-president is hardly alone in this, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, said on X, "Yes they can control the weather. It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done." Who the "they" are remains unclear, though it is possible that in her mind it could be the same imaginary forces behind the "Jewish space lasers" that she said might have caused the 2018 California wildfires.
Multiple sources have debunked the current FEMA lies and warned of the risks of misinformation. Congress authorized $20 billion of new funding for the agency about two weeks ago. But the money was not to replace funding supposedly spent elsewhere, rather it was authorized as Hurricane Helene was gathering strength. Hurricane Milton's aftermath will require billions more. Also required is public faith in disaster relief efforts, which Mr. Trump and his allies are undermining with their anti-immigrant falsehoods. FEMA's leader, Deanne Criswell, said that the lies were demoralizing aid workers and keeping people from applying for recovery assistance.
Lies of choice have unfortunately become part and parcel of the MAGA right. Before Helene, they were about migrants eating pets in Ohio. This week, the vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance opened a new attack line, speciously targeting the children of immigrants in Michigan. This all leads back to the so-called Big Lie, that the 2020 election was stolen by Democrats. Mr. Vance has refused to say outright that the vote was legitimate. In fact, just days ago, when asked if Donald Trump had won, his answer was, "Yep." To say that MAGA lying should be dismissed as akin to flat-Earth skepticism would be unfair to the skeptics.