Trumps Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories Fuel Threats Against FEMA in North Carolina

[Social Media]

 

As the United States grapples with increasingly harmful conspiracy theories, recent events in North Carolina have once again shown the real-world impact of such misinformation. For weeks, unfounded rumors about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its response to Hurricane Helene have spread across social media platforms, exacerbated by figures like Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The consequences are now becoming clear.

Just received this note from a SpaceX engineer helping on the ground in North Carolina. @FEMA is not merely failing to adequately help people in trouble, but is actively blocking citizens who try to help!

“Hey Elon, update here on site of Asheville, NC. We have powered up two…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2024

 

According to a report from *The Washington Post*, federal emergency responders were evacuated from Rutherford County, North Carolina, after receiving threats from armed militia groups. An official from the U.S. Forest Service confirmed that the National Guard encountered two trucks filled with militia members who claimed they were “out hunting FEMA.” Earlier the same day, a resident in the county threatened FEMA personnel stationed in a trailer, as reported by volunteers from the Cajun Navy, a relief organization. Riva Duncan, a former Forest Service official, noted that people in the area had been harassing federal employees, telling them they did not want aid.

 

While the Ashe County sheriff, Phil Howell, mentioned threats in nearby counties, he confirmed that no such threats were made in his jurisdiction. Nevertheless, FEMA officials paused their operations to reassess the security risks in the region.

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) revealed during an appearance on MSNBC that militia groups had reportedly threatened FEMA in at least two North Carolina counties. While the severity of these threats remains unclear, the situation has delayed vital recovery efforts in the region. This heightened tension has been directly linked to the spread of misinformation on social media platforms, particularly those with relaxed moderation policies.

 

Much of the misinformation centers on false claims that FEMA has been blocking aid and seizing property in the areas affected by Hurricane Helene. A particularly persistent conspiracy theory alleges that the federal government is attempting to seize lithium deposits in Chimney Rock, a claim debunked by local officials. Despite these efforts, false claims have continued to spread, with prominent figures like Musk and Trump amplifying the rumors. On October 4, Musk shared a claim from a SpaceX employee who falsely alleged that FEMA was “actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally.” Trump reposted this claim on his Truth Social platform, adding to the confusion.

 

This is not the first time Trump has been accused of fueling conspiracy theories in crisis situations. Just weeks ago, Trump falsely claimed that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating local pets, another baseless assertion that led to heightened tensions. Trump has also used misinformation as a political tool during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the aftermath of the 2020 election, culminating in the January 6 insurrection.

 

The most prominent theory surrounding FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene—that the agency is seizing materials and blocking aid—has been debunked by local and state officials. However, the damage caused by these conspiracy theories is undeniable. Authorities in Buncombe County, North Carolina, have been inundated with calls from concerned residents who believe FEMA is rejecting donations and taking private property.

 

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit organization, had warned last week about the potential for militia activity based on these conspiracy theories. The group connected the misinformation to calls for militias to confront FEMA, leading to increased threats against federal employees in the area.

 

While it is difficult to trace the origins of these threats directly to Trump or Musk, their promotion of baseless claims has undoubtedly contributed to the escalating tensions in North Carolina. Regardless of where the threats originated, the spread of misinformation has created confusion and fear, delaying recovery efforts and putting emergency responders at risk. As with the January 6 insurrection, Trump’s direct responsibility for these events may be open to interpretation, but it is clear that his rhetoric has worsened an already volatile situation.

 

Based on a report from the WP 2024-10-16

 

 

 

[gargamon]

Oh, Trump. Sharpee gate. Use nukes to stop a hurricane. Use nukes to start a hurricane. Inject bleach to kill covid. The list goes on forever.

 

I can't wait for the few weeks remaining to pass so we can get over this Trump nonsense.

[Tug]

Trump and his minions will continue to sow division discord and lies as long as they think it helps their attempted takeover of our democracy .they do not care about you stop being rubes stop listening to their enablers!

[cooked]

FEMA has failed multiple times in the past to overcome its bureaucratic nature when an emergency occurred.

He NEVER said to inject bleach, nor any of the other outright lies that are told about him. 

[dinsdale]

Men in women's sports, tampons in boys toilets, mass immigration including convicted murderers and gangs, LGBTQI etc. etc. agenda being forced on schoolchildren along with other woke rubbish like pronoun usage and the rest of woke ideology, lack of freedom of speech and above all a complete idiot to be the President of The United States of America. If this is what people want they should vote Democrat. As for the article itself it's from the Washington Post.

[gargamon]

16 minutes ago, cooked said:

He NEVER said to inject bleach, nor any of the other outright lies that are told about him. 

Got a link from a reputable news source to back up your misinformation? I saw Trump live when he instructed fauci to look into it. And remember the MAGA morons who believed him and were in the ER for ingesting bleach just a few days later.

[dinsdale]

36 minutes ago, gargamon said:

Got a link from a reputable news source to back up your misinformation? I saw Trump live when he instructed fauci to look into it. And remember the MAGA morons who believed him and were in the ER for ingesting bleach just a few days later.

You've said it yourself. Trump DID NOT say inject bleach but "to look into it". Two very different things.

 

"Bryan said that his team had done some experiments that found that sun exposure and disinfectants, cleaning agents like bleach, could kill COVID-19 on surfaces and in the air. He eventually steps aside and says, you know, this concludes my research, we have some good stuff to go on.

Then, Trump takes the mic and sort of riffs. He's looking back and forth at reporters, and then Bryan, who's sitting off to the side. And Trump says, speaking to reporters, you know, a question that a lot of you are probably thinking is, what if we hit the body — this is his words — with a tremendous ultraviolet or very powerful light — and I'm sort of paraphrasing here for the sake of clarity.

And then he turns to Bryan and says, I think you said that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it, which you can do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you're gonna test that. Sounds interesting, right?

And he goes on, he says, and I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in one minute. Is there a way we could do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning because you can see, it gets in the lungs — he's referring to the virus now — it does a tremendous number on the lungs, and I think it'd be interesting to check that. So he’s sort of rambling here and these comments created confusion.

Almost immediately after that, a reporter, who was sitting in this press briefing room asked him, did you just say you’re testing injections? And Bryan came back to the microphone and said no, no, that's not what we tested in our lab. And Trump also clarified, he said well, that's not what I meant, it wouldn't be through injections, it would be cleaning and sterilization of an area.

And so it appeared that they shut it down and clarified what they meant just moments later, but the press had already taken off with these comments that Trump made."

https://www.wfae.org/politics/2024-04-03/fact-check-did-trump-once-tell-americans-to-inject-bleach-to-fight-covid-19

Unfortunately you ask for "a link from a reputable news source" aka the legacy media the purveyors of the UN/big pharma/CDC agenda. 

[gargamon]

1 hour ago, dinsdale said:

You've said it yourself. Trump DID NOT say inject bleach but "to look into it". Two very different things.

 

"Bryan said that his team had done some experiments that found that sun exposure and disinfectants, cleaning agents like bleach, could kill COVID-19 on surfaces and in the air. He eventually steps aside and says, you know, this concludes my research, we have some good stuff to go on.

Then, Trump takes the mic and sort of riffs. He's looking back and forth at reporters, and then Bryan, who's sitting off to the side. And Trump says, speaking to reporters, you know, a question that a lot of you are probably thinking is, what if we hit the body — this is his words — with a tremendous ultraviolet or very powerful light — and I'm sort of paraphrasing here for the sake of clarity.

And then he turns to Bryan and says, I think you said that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it, which you can do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you're gonna test that. Sounds interesting, right?

And he goes on, he says, and I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in one minute. Is there a way we could do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning because you can see, it gets in the lungs — he's referring to the virus now — it does a tremendous number on the lungs, and I think it'd be interesting to check that. So he’s sort of rambling here and these comments created confusion.

Almost immediately after that, a reporter, who was sitting in this press briefing room asked him, did you just say you’re testing injections? And Bryan came back to the microphone and said no, no, that's not what we tested in our lab. And Trump also clarified, he said well, that's not what I meant, it wouldn't be through injections, it would be cleaning and sterilization of an area.

And so it appeared that they shut it down and clarified what they meant just moments later, but the press had already taken off with these comments that Trump made."

https://www.wfae.org/politics/2024-04-03/fact-check-did-trump-once-tell-americans-to-inject-bleach-to-fight-covid-19

Unfortunately you ask for "a link from a reputable news source" aka the legacy media the purveyors of the UN/big pharma/CDC agenda. 

Accidental Poisonings Increased After President Trump’s Disinfectant Comments

 

https://time.com/5835244/accidental-poisonings-trump/

 

You can try to interpret the nonsense coming out of Trump's mouth literally so you can mask his incompetence, but ER visits for injecting bleach don't lie.

----

President Trump’s April 23 musing that injections of disinfectant could help defeat the coronavirus did not do much for his reputation as a reliable arbiter of public health. What’s harder to determine is how many people—if any—took his advice and in some way ingested the toxic chemicals. The most recent bulletin from the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), which aggregates data from its state counterparts, does offer some clues, however.

Even before Trump’s comments, accidental poisonings from bleach and other disinfectants were on the rise from Jan. 1 to March 31 of this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, with people sanitizing surfaces, groceries, smartphones and more as a defense against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Most of the poisonings were the result of inhalation of fumes, but there were ingestion cases as well, typically among children who got their hands on chemicals left out in the open.

 

What’s key is what happened in the weeks that followed Trump’s controversial and widely debunked comments—and there does appear to have been a rise in accidental poisonings thereafter.

In January, February and March of 2020, accidental poisonings with household disinfectants were up 5%, 17% and 93% respectively over the same months in 2019. In April, which includes an eight day period from the 23rd of the month to the 30th, following Trump’s comments, the increase was 121% compared to April of 2019. In the first ten days of May, things settled down some, with poisonings up 69% over the same 10-day period in 2019.

 

[dinsdale]

3 minutes ago, gargamon said:

Accidental Poisonings Increased After President Trump’s Disinfectant Comments

 

https://time.com/5835244/accidental-poisonings-trump/

 

You can try to interpret the nonsense coming out of Trump's mouth literally so you can mask his incompetence, but ER visits for injecting bleach don't lie.

----

President Trump’s April 23 musing that injections of disinfectant could help defeat the coronavirus did not do much for his reputation as a reliable arbiter of public health. What’s harder to determine is how many people—if any—took his advice and in some way ingested the toxic chemicals. The most recent bulletin from the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), which aggregates data from its state counterparts, does offer some clues, however.

Even before Trump’s comments, accidental poisonings from bleach and other disinfectants were on the rise from Jan. 1 to March 31 of this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, with people sanitizing surfaces, groceries, smartphones and more as a defense against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Most of the poisonings were the result of inhalation of fumes, but there were ingestion cases as well, typically among children who got their hands on chemicals left out in the open.

 

What’s key is what happened in the weeks that followed Trump’s controversial and widely debunked comments—and there does appear to have been a rise in accidental poisonings thereafter.

In January, February and March of 2020, accidental poisonings with household disinfectants were up 5%, 17% and 93% respectively over the same months in 2019. In April, which includes an eight day period from the 23rd of the month to the 30th, following Trump’s comments, the increase was 121% compared to April of 2019. In the first ten days of May, things settled down some, with poisonings up 69% over the same 10-day period in 2019.

 

The article you quote debunks your own position. In part states:

What’s harder to determine is how many people—if any—took his advice and in some way ingested the toxic chemicals."

Even before Trump’s comments, accidental poisonings from bleach and other disinfectants were on the rise from Jan. 1 to March 31 of this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, with people sanitizing surfaces, groceries, smartphones and more as a defense against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Most of the poisonings were the result of inhalation of fumes, but there were ingestion cases as well, typically among children who got their hands on chemicals left out in the open.

Following this is conjecture that there ".....appear[s] to have been a rise in accidental poisonings thereafter.".

 

 

[stevenl]

All deflections from the dangerous misinformation from trump and musk about FEMA.

[WDSmart]

Lock him up!

[Thingamabob]

Amazing how this article somehow manages to link Trump and Musk with recent events in North Carolina. Ridiculous.

[FritsSikkink]

7 hours ago, dinsdale said:

Men in women's sports, tampons in boys toilets, mass immigration including convicted murderers and gangs, LGBTQI etc. etc. agenda being forced on schoolchildren along with other woke rubbish like pronoun usage and the rest of woke ideology, lack of freedom of speech and above all a complete idiot to be the President of The United States of America. If this is what people want they should vote Democrat. As for the article itself it's from the Washington Post.

Better to vote for a fascist then: ‘Fascist’! Trump rocked by blistering rebuke from top U.S. General as Harris surges | Watch (msn.com)

[renaissanc]

ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NYT, CBS won't tell you this, but the desperate Dem-Marxists have 2 new strategies.  1. Everything said against them is misinformation.  2. To create fear about "Hitler" winning ... and how this will bring about the end of the universe and the existence of God. That's how dangerous they say he is.

[dinsdale]

17 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Better to vote for a fascist then: ‘Fascist’! Trump rocked by blistering rebuke from top U.S. General as Harris surges | Watch (msn.com)

Fantastic source you've quoted. Generals backing Kamala is a self preservation move after the completely botched deal with the Taliban and poorly executed withdrawal from Afghanistan. Fairly sure they don't want Trump as their new boss.

Fairly sure this Admiral won't be voting for Trump.

[candide]

6 minutes ago, renaissanc said:

ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NYT, CBS won't tell uou this, but the desperate Dem-Marxists have 3 new strategies.  1. Everything said against them is misinformation.  2. To create fear about "Hitler" winning ... and how this will bring about the end of the universe and the existence of God. That's how dangerous they say he is.

Projecting much... 😁

[cjinchiangrai]

34 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

Lock him up!

A clear violation of the terms of his presentencing release. He is a convicted felon after all.

[FritsSikkink]

1 hour ago, dinsdale said:

Fantastic source you've quoted. Generals backing Kamala is a self preservation move after the completely botched deal with the Taliban and poorly executed withdrawal from Afghanistan. Fairly sure they don't want Trump as their new boss.

Fairly sure this Admiral won't be voting for Trump.

Not just a general but Mark Miley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Can't get any higher than that i think.

Didn't bother to watch the video of course. Keep your head in the sand and copy everything the lying muppet does. 

[Phulublub]

9 hours ago, cooked said:

FEMA has failed multiple times in the past to overcome its bureaucratic nature when an emergency occurred.

He NEVER said to inject bleach, nor any of the other outright lies that are told about him. 

For your education...0.45 in...

 

 

[Phulublub]

8 hours ago, dinsdale said:

You've said it yourself. Trump DID NOT say inject bleach but "to look into it". Two very different things.

 

"Bryan said that his team had done some experiments that found that sun exposure and disinfectants, cleaning agents like bleach, could kill COVID-19 on surfaces and in the air. He eventually steps aside and says, you know, this concludes my research, we have some good stuff to go on.

Then, Trump takes the mic and sort of riffs. He's looking back and forth at reporters, and then Bryan, who's sitting off to the side. And Trump says, speaking to reporters, you know, a question that a lot of you are probably thinking is, what if we hit the body — this is his words — with a tremendous ultraviolet or very powerful light — and I'm sort of paraphrasing here for the sake of clarity.

And then he turns to Bryan and says, I think you said that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it, which you can do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you're gonna test that. Sounds interesting, right?

And he goes on, he says, and I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in one minute. Is there a way we could do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning because you can see, it gets in the lungs — he's referring to the virus now — it does a tremendous number on the lungs, and I think it'd be interesting to check that. So he’s sort of rambling here and these comments created confusion.

Almost immediately after that, a reporter, who was sitting in this press briefing room asked him, did you just say you’re testing injections? And Bryan came back to the microphone and said no, no, that's not what we tested in our lab. And Trump also clarified, he said well, that's not what I meant, it wouldn't be through injections, it would be cleaning and sterilization of an area.

And so it appeared that they shut it down and clarified what they meant just moments later, but the press had already taken off with these comments that Trump made."

https://www.wfae.org/politics/2024-04-03/fact-check-did-trump-once-tell-americans-to-inject-bleach-to-fight-covid-19

Unfortunately you ask for "a link from a reputable news source" aka the legacy media the purveyors of the UN/big pharma/CDC agenda. 

In your own quotes, he DOES say...by injection inside .  Just how much more clarity do you need?

 

PH

[dinsdale]

6 minutes ago, Phulublub said:

For your education...0.45 in...

 

 

See my above post to put this in context. This is pretty much just a sound bite. "It would be interesting to check that. You would need to have medical doctors...." He is clearly not telling people to inject bleach.

[WDSmart]

1 hour ago, cjinchiangrai said:

1 hour ago, WDSmart said:

Lock him up!

A clear violation of the terms of his presentencing release. He is a convicted felon after all.

I meant "lock him up" because of these new actions of spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories about FEMA. He could be charged with "making False Statements" and then locked up pending trial. The Law of Lying: Perjury, False Statements, and Obstruction | Lawfare (lawfaremedia.org) 

[cjinchiangrai]

12 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

I meant "lock him up" because of these new actions of spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories about FEMA. He could be charged with "making False Statements" and then locked up pending trial. The Law of Lying: Perjury, False Statements, and Obstruction | Lawfare (lawfaremedia.org) 

He could be but inciting violence as a bond violation is faster,

[Phulublub]

49 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

See my above post to put this in context. This is pretty much just a sound bite. "It would be interesting to check that. You would need to have medical doctors...." He is clearly not telling people to inject bleach.

Ah. Just a sound bite.  that's OK then. 

 

You appear to think that suggesting that maybe injecting bleach may be a remotely good idea worth serious investigation.  I will leave it there

 

PH

[impulse]

39 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

I meant "lock him up" because of these new actions of spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories about FEMA. He could be charged with "making False Statements" and then locked up pending trial. The Law of Lying: Perjury, False Statements, and Obstruction | Lawfare (lawfaremedia.org) 

 

So how'za bout they lock up all the Dems who fueled 2-1/2 assassination attempts against a candidate with their vitriolic rhetoric? 

 

Or the Dems that incited a whole season of mostly peaceful  town burnings with their anti-cop rhetoric?

 

Or do you just want to lock up the ones you don't like?

 

 

[WDSmart]

6 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

So how'za bout they lock up all the Dems who fueled 2-1/2 assassination attempts against a candidate with their vitriolic rhetoric? 

 

Or the Dems that incited a whole season of mostly peaceful  town burnings with their anti-cop rhetoric?

 

Or do you just want to lock up the ones you don't like?

 

 

There were no Dems who fueled the recent assassination attempts against Trump. He's the one who's fueled them.

The Dems did support the right to freedom of speech. It was the police that overreacted, using violence to try to quell the mobs, that incited those.

Yes, I'd much rather see those I don't like locked up than those I do like. 

[dinsdale]

2 minutes ago, Phulublub said:

Ah. Just a sound bite.  that's OK then. 

 

You appear to think that suggesting that maybe injecting bleach may be a remotely good idea worth serious investigation.  I will leave it there

 

PH

Suggesting to investigate if it's plausible using science. Big difference to shooting yourself up with bleach wouldn't you say? Who knows. Maybe for example a 0.00000000000000001% bleach in some sort of solution may have had some benefit. I doubt it very much but they were early days and people were searching for solutions. Interesting though that he mentioned sunlight because as it turned out vitamin B was beneficial. He wouldn't have known that of course.

[dinsdale]

1 minute ago, WDSmart said:

There were no Dems who fueled the recent assassination attempts against Trump. He's the one who's fueled them.

The Dems did support the right to freedom of speech. It was the police that overreacted, using violence to try to quell the mobs, that incited those.

Yes, I'd much rather see those I don't like locked up than those I do like. 

Mark Zuckerberg would disagree with you that the Dems support freedom of speech. Everyone on this forum knows that freedom of speech has been quashed under the neo liberal left of the Democratic party.

[cjinchiangrai]

4 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

There were no Dems who fueled the recent assassination attempts against Trump. He's the one who's fueled them.

The Dems did support the right to freedom of speech. It was the police that overreacted, using violence to try to quell the mobs, that incited those.

Yes, I'd much rather see those I don't like locked up than those I do like. 

Ans, all three of the "assassins" were hard right gun-nut crazies trying to create a martyr. 

[Red Forever]

10 hours ago, cooked said:

FEMA has failed multiple times in the past to overcome its bureaucratic nature when an emergency occurred.

He NEVER said to inject bleach, nor any of the other outright lies that are told about him. 

Oh yes he did.