
Several weeks following the devastation of Hurricane Helene, Donald Trump came to visit Asheville, North Carolina. Not to bring aid, but to promote misinformation about the disaster response and ultimately to promote himself. He repeated absurd lies including that the inadequate response of FEMA to the disaster was due to “all of the money being given to illegal immigrants.” There is plenty to critique about the response to Helene, but undocumented migrants have nothing to do with it.
Throwing salt on the wounds, to organize Trump’s press conference many local roads, already severely limited due to storm damage, were blockaded, creating multiple hours-long traffic jams for people who needed to attend doctor’s appointments, meetings with insurance representatives, pick up bottled water donations and more. One person stuck in a traffic jam posted on Reddit that, “…here is what happens when a heartless narcissist is more interested in a photo op than a region’s needs.”