The GOP MAGA ex-president has this knee jerk pattern of blaming his innocent opponents for misdeeds that he’s guilty of because he can’t believe that others don’t behave likewise.
It’s like when he accuses democrats for having figured out how to rig the election infrastructure because this is exactly what he does. He can’t believe that it isn’t his opponents who’re orchestrating legal claims against him because that is what he wants to do to his political rivals. In this case, he’s repeatedly making outrageously false claims that POTUS Biden’s administration has run out of FEMA funds because monies were allocated to take care of migrants because that’s exactly what he has done, in 2019. And in 2017, he delayed funds to Southern California devastated by fires, because it’s a blue state, and 2018 he withheld/ delayed funds to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017 based on his own personal biases.
FEMA had to set up a page on its website to address GOP MAGAs’ false claims that FEMA does not have enough money to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The page reads: “FEMA has enough money right now for immediate response and recovery needs. If you were affected by Helene, do not hesitate to apply for disaster assistance as there is a variety of help available for different needs.”
It has become obvious that attributes like decency, fair play, being a gracious loser or winner, etc. are absent in the ex-president’s nature. He reflexively presumes that others act as depraved as he does.
See: FACT SHEET: UPDATE: Biden- – WH
Former president Donald Trump, makes the following false remarks about FEMA and migrants at his Oct. 3rd rally in Saginaw, MI:
“The Harris-Biden administration says they don’t have any money [for hurricane relief]. … They spent it all on illegal migrants. … They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them.”
Glenn Kessler fact checks the GOP MAGA ex-president’s comments in his analysis published by the Washington Post on October 4, 2024 Washington Post, “No, Biden didn’t take FEMA relief money to use on migrants — but Trump did:”
Excerpts:
“Trump has been trying to weaponize the Hurricane Helene relief efforts, accusing the Biden administration of failing to provide adequate assistance. As part of his critique, he claims there is no money available for hurricane relief because it was spent already to handle the surge of migrants at the southern border.”
“Even though Trump was once president, he still appears to have little clue about the appropriations process. What’s even richer is that when he was president, he did exactly what he claims Biden did — take money from FEMA’s disaster fund to fund migrant programs at the southern border.”
The Facts
“FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security. On Wednesday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters: “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.”
“As we said, Congress appropriated this money, just as it did the disaster fund. There’s no evidence that any money from the disaster fund was used to help migrants.”
“It turns out that’s because he did this! In 2019, the Trump administration, in the middle of hurricane season, told Congress that it was taking $271 million from DHS programs, including $155 million from the disaster fund, to pay for immigration detention space and temporary hearing locations for asylum seekers who have been forced to wait in Mexico. “The U.S. is facing a security and humanitarian crisis on the Southern border,” the administration said in its notice that it was redirecting the funds.”
“The monthly reports issued by the FEMA disaster fund show $38 million was plucked and given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August that year — just before the prime storm period of September and October.”
The Pinocchio Test
“Trump falsely claims FEMA has run out of disaster money — and then falsely says that’s because money instead was spent on migrants. There is no evidence the Biden administration spent FEMA disaster money on migrants. Rather, that’s what Trump did.”
“He earns Four Pinocchios.”
See: How long will it take for Congress to act on emergency/ GovExec.com …
Biden says aid package for Helene ‘can’t wait’ until after election/ Reuters
In another incident and according to E&E News, “Trump had to be convinced to send federal disaster aid to California in 2018, when the state was plagued with deadly wildfires that killed more than 100.”
“Former Trump resiliency policy director Mark Harvey told the outlet that Trump was worried about sending aid to the deep-blue state until he pulled voter data showing that Trump had more (GOP MAGA) support in Orange County, California than Iowa.”
As per the April 23, 2021 NBC report by Nicole Acevedo, “New probe confirms Trump officials blocked Puerto Rico from receiving hurricane aid:”
Excerpts:
“Throughout his term (2016-2020), Trump repeatedly opposed disaster funding for Puerto Rico while disputing and failing to acknowledge Maria’s death toll. Trump had also told top White House officials “that he did not want a single dollar going to Puerto Rico,” the Washington Post reported in 2019. “Instead, he wanted more of the money to go to Texas and Florida.”
“Under Trump, Congress had approved a total of $20 billion in HUD funds for Puerto Rico’s post-hurricane reconstruction, a historic amount. But the agency stalled the release of the aid in 2019 and imposed additional restrictions and requirements last year on how Puerto Rico could gain access to the funds, citing corruption and financial mismanagement concerns.”
“Office of Inspector General audits published last year (2020) found that Puerto Rico needs to have a better system for requesting and monitoring federal grants to rebuild after Hurricane Maria — but Texas and Florida had similar issues and their funds were not held up after natural disasters.”
Remember Sharpiegate when the GOP MAGA ex-president referred to a Sharpie-doctored map Trump displayed in 2019, when he falsely said all hurricane models predicted Dorian would hit Alabama.
Gronda Morin 
This grifter will stop at Nothing and the very fact that he is allowed to be on the presidential ballot again is a dark day for our country. It’s shameful.
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HI! It’s great to hear from you.
Let’s just hope that the pro-democracy coalition of voters from left to right do him in, once and for all. We are at a crucial point in US history where the USA as a bastion of democracy for the world is literally at risk.
There’ll be lots of history books telling the tale about how we allowed the likes of the GOP MAGA ex-president and his MAGA sycophants to gain enough power to threaten our way of life, our freedoms for all, and not just those who agree with him.
Hugs, Gronda
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Hoping!
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Trump’s continued presence says much about the mindset of a large portion of the USA voter population.
Twenty years ago one tenth of what he had said would have sunk his chances in the 2016 primaries. His vile comment about McCain’s war record would have done it alone.
There is something very unsettling stalking the USA political landscape.
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Hi!
As usual Roger, you note that there has to be lots of undercurrents somewhere for US citizens having the state of our US democracy seriously at risk for the likes of a truly flawed character like the GOP MAGA Ex-President Trump.
It starts with big money billionaires, millionaires, corporate titans preferring that the USA democracy be transitioned into an autocracy. These ultra-right folks are transactional in that they don’t care about air and water quality, raising the living wages for workers, providing for health insurance, and other major safety-net social programs, etc. They just want to be burdened with less taxes and regulations. These guys have been around forever, but their influence was strengthened with the US Supreme Court’s past 2010 (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission) ruling that allows corporations to donate anonymously big monies with no limit to bolster GOP MAGA candidates’ chances for winning elections.
Over a 50-year period these folks have been donating heavily to republican party candidates, now known as GOP MAGAs (the Grand Old Party Make America Great again cultists), buying influence to where pro-business conservative anti-abortion justices now own the US Supreme Court.
These same folks are tolerating Trump because of his cult-like following of millions of voters. They’ve tried donating heavily to substitutes like Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis and Ohio’s US Senator JD Vance, but with no success. It’s Trump who’s capable of motivating his millions of cult-like loyal voters to go to the polling booth.
In the USA, 90% of media outlets are owned/ controlled by only 6 corporations. Thus, we’ve been witnessing media folks becoming codependent enablers of Trump as they give the likes of Trump, the liar-in-chief equal footing with competent, truthful candidates.
This election is the last viable chance for these transactional moneymen to accomplish their mission of morphing the USA into an autocracy. The conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 922-page manual is the blueprint for how to accomplish our US democracy being transformed into an autocracy with Trump, the wannabe dictator at the helm.
It was some of these ultra-right-wing moneymen like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, David Sachs along with others who heavily influenced Trump to pick JD Vance for the vice-presidency spot. These transactional right wingers have placed an unpopular candidate as the automatic heir apparent should Trump’s health takes a downturn. JD Vance would make a much smarter, sophisticated dictator. JD Vance is a follower of Curtis Yarvin who’s publicly declared that Americans have to get over their dictator phobia.
These are definitely scary times!
Hugs, Gronda
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Indeed they are.
You will notice the Right falls back on the term ‘Socialism’ when anything liberal or progressive is mentioned. Most of these being not the sole preserve of Socialist thinking.
They do have a knack of choosing words for insults which have no relation to the reality of the situation.
‘Snowflake’ being a classic. Did they ever think where snowdrifts come from…..millions of snowflakes.
Greed, Ignorance, Stupidity and Hate. That is all they seem to be able to offer.
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Hi again!
You nailed it, again. These right-wing conservative players aren’t looking at the big picture. They don’t care about the harm and suffering they will cause to society as a whole or to the average essential workers who make them rich. They just want what they want. These are the folks that’d yell, “let them eat cake.”
In 2012, I’m convinced that the GOP candidate Mitt Romney lost the presidential election because of a secretly recorded meeting, made public, that reflects the thinking of the right-wing conservatives that I’ve been describing:
Romney: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49, he starts off with a huge number.”
“These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So, our message of low taxes doesn’t connect. So, he’ll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean, that’s what they sell every four years. And so, my job is not to worry about those people.”
“I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents, that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not.”
Almost nothing divulged in the above statement is true. It’s important to note that Mitt Romney was at a fund raiser surrounded by rich conservative donors. He thought he was talking to like-minded people in a closed, private setting.
Hugs, Gronda
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“And so, my job is not to worry about those people.”
That is not the sort of statement I would expect from a person seeking the highest office in the USA. All the people are the president’s concern.
That was back in 2012, almost balmy days in political terms.
Goodness knows what Trump & Vance are saying in private these days.
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