Sandy and Milton

As more than six million people try to evacuate from larger Tampa/St. Pete in the face of what might be the worst natural disaster in modern American history, it’s worth noting — despite the very low baseline — how much more degenerate the Republican Party has become in 12 short years: [gift link]

Donald Trump and JD Vance are lying about the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene.

“Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants,” Trump said at a rally in Michigan last week, telling his audience that the agency responsible for disaster response had abandoned victims of the hurricane.

“They promised $750 to American citizens who have lost everything,” Vance said at a rally in Butler, Pa., over the weekend, suggesting that the government had given only a pittance to those affected by the hurricane. In truth, the $750 was an upfront payment to help cover the cost of food, water, medicine and other emergency supplies. Victims are still eligible for additional payments totaling thousands of dollars to repair damage to their homes and other personal property.

It would be easy to dismiss these lies as mere MAGA theater, but they are far more destructive than that.

First and foremost, the lying degrades the ability of the federal government to respond to the disaster. Clear lines of communication are paramount during a crisis like the one facing western North Carolina. When Trump and Vance lie about the extent of the federal response, they disrupt the flow of information with noise and interference. What’s more, to the extent that ordinary Americans take Trump and his running mate at their word, their lies may keep actual victims of the hurricane from claiming the benefits they’re entitled to. Compare this performance with that of Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey in 2012, who worked with President Barack Obama to deliver as much assistance as possible to people affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Christie, it should be said, is all but estranged from the Republican Party these days.

Christie is hardly an admirable figure, but in the face of disaster he thought helping the citizens in his state was more important than getting a marginal advantage in the presidential election. Trump, Vance, and DeSants are making precisely the opposite calculation. And as Bouie says, it’s not just about any particular election but about undermining democratic norms and values in general:

To step back for a moment, there are two paths you can take from this observation about the power of political lying to undermine the ability of government to do its job. One is an analysis of the ideological underpinnings of this particular set of false claims. Remember, Trump and Vance lead a political movement that is, no matter what they say, opposed at its core to the very notion of public goods and of a state that acts for the public interest. It is not a coincidence that Vance’s chief benefactor in politics is Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist and vocal critic of democracy.

Instead, as Trump sees it, the goal of the state is to be a pathway for the upward redistribution of wealth to him, his friends and his allies. This is why his signature domestic policy for a potential second term — next to mass deportations and large, ruinous tariffs — is a gargantuan upper-income tax cut tailored to the wealthiest people in the country.

If Trump does not care about FEMA’s ability to do its job, it is because both he and his allies intend to dismantle the agency (most likely to help pay for tax cuts). In the Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for Leadership — the infamous Project 2025 — a former acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security, Ken Cuccinelli, outlines four major changes to the agency that he would like to make during a second Trump administration: terminating FEMA grants to state, local and tribal governments; raising the threshold for FEMA assistance to disaster-stricken communities; privatizing the National Flood Insurance Program; and cutting the amount FEMA spends to assist state and local recovery efforts. Trump has disavowed Project 2025, but it remains true that key officials in his administration helped to devise the document and that Trump himself has spoken favorably of the Heritage Foundation.

Much more good stuff about how normalizing constant lying undermines democratic foundations. It’s grim in any context and appalling with the number of lives on the line.