Disaster relief funds are not being redirected to support migrants

Bob Oswald

Unfortunately, false information often follows natural disasters. Some of the fake news after Hurricane Helene actually came from former President Donald Trump.

“Well, for one, $1 billion was stolen from FEMA to use on illegal immigrants. And FEMA is broke now,” Trump said during an Oct. 4 stop in Augusta, Georgia, to survey the storm’s damage. “FEMA didn’t do its job, which means the federal government, Kamala and Joe, obviously didn’t do its job.”

According to PolitiFact, FEMA’s claim is false. Trump used the false statement to attack Kamala Harris, his opponent in the presidential election. He also made a similar claim during stops in Michigan and North Carolina.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) migrant programs do not accept funds earmarked for disasters. The group’s disaster relief fund and programs for migrants are funded separately by Congress, not the president.

FEMA addressed the claim on its rumor response website.

“No money will be diverted to disaster relief,” the agency said in an Oct. 3 post. “FEMA’s disaster relief efforts and individual assistance are funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a special fund for disaster efforts.”

FEMA is not running out of money, PolitiFact said. This information comes from a statement from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. After an Oct. 2 trip to survey storm damage in South Carolina, Mayorkas said, “The money we have is used to meet immediate needs…FEMA does not have the resources to get through the (hurricane) season.” “

Although FEMA will face a deficit this year, Congress has approved additional funding for the relief fund every year since 2017. And the recent stopgap bill added $20 million to the disaster relief fund to fund the government through Dec. 20.

The photo of Trump wading in the water is a fake

Former President Donald Trump traveled to areas affected by Hurricane Helene and spoke with residents, but not all reports of his visit are accurate.

“I don’t think FB wants this picture on FB. They deleted it,” reads the text of a Sept. 30 Facebook post that includes a photo of Trump and another man in orange life jackets wading through floodwaters, identified in the comments as being in Valdosta, Georgia.

However, according to USA Today, there is no evidence that this actually happened. The photo was created using artificial intelligence or AI.

Walter Scheirer, an engineering professor at the University of Notre Dame, told USA TODAY that the photo was “the product of a generative AI algorithm.”

“An important clue is that the two men’s clothes appear to be dry,” said Scheirer. “If they waded through water, they would be soaked – an effect seen in the numerous real photos of the hurricane.”

A comment on the post offered an explanation as to why Facebook would delete the post.

“Probably removed because it’s AI generated, every media outlet in the country would be covering it if it actually happened,” the commenter wrote.

The Vikings did not denounce Walz

A recent social media post appears to show a National Football League team expressing a political position.

“The Minnesota Vikings have denounced Tim Walz: ‘We do not support his values,'” reads a headline in a post that includes photos of Vikings players and Minnesota Gov. Walz.

However, according to Reuters, there is no evidence that this is real. There is no similar comment on the team’s website or social media accounts, and there are no other reports of the Vikings making such a statement.

The headline matches a headline that appeared in a Dunning-Kruger Times article published by an affiliate of the satirical website America’s Last Line of Defense.

Aniston video is deep fake

A recent video making rounds on social media shows actress Jennifer Aniston talking to actress Nicole Kidman about her fitness and fat-burning routine.

In the clip, Aniston, 55, can be seen talking about maintaining her “bikini body” into her 50s.

However, according to US WEEKLY, that conversation didn’t actually happen. This video is a deep fake scam created with new audio dubbed over a video of an actual event that occurred.

The video was created to sell collagen supplements, with the fake Aniston explaining “why my body doesn’t store fat.”

In the original video used to create the deep fake, Aniston talks about acting with Kidman, Naomi Watts and Sofia Vergara during a Hollywood Reporter roundtable.

• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at [email protected].