False stories exploiting climate disasters on the political side, and other false narratives about the US presidential election circulating in the EU

Hurricanes that recently struck the US are being falsely claimed to have been intentionally caused by humans, following a familiar pattern of disinformation that has also affected recent disasters in the EU. Increasingly, false stories and conspiracies describe floods, earthquakes, droughts or wildfires as caused by chemtrails, HAARP projects, laser beams, or other supposed geoengineering techniques. The same thing happened with the devastation caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in many US states, but with one distinctive feature: since these events occurred during the presidential election campaign, these false stories were amplified by some Republican politicians in an attempt to capitalize on the devastation and grief in the political campaign.

Donald Trump, the former president and current republican candidate, made various debunked claims about Hurricane Milton. He stated, for example, that the federal government isn’t helping Republican areas of western North Carolina or that the Democrats were giving funds allocated for the victims of the disaster to migrants. Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), amplified some of those falsehoods: on his platform, he wrote that the  Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “used up its budget ferrying illegals into the country instead of saving American lives”, so that “they are literally using YOUR tax dollars to import voters and disenfranchise you!”. The situation was further aggravated when a Georgian congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, already known for spreading conspiracies, suggested on X that the Government could “control the weather”. The post has been seen over forty million times.

The claim was soon proven false by authoritative media, fact-checking organizations, some Republican politicians themselves, and even President Biden had to intervene. Nevertheless, the conspiracy continued to spread and gain popularity online, exposing meteorologists to death threats and harassment and also reaching EU shores on the Atlantic Ocean.

The conspiracy that the hurricanes were deliberately caused by the Democrats spreads in the EU

While there are some techniques for slightly conditioning the weather, their effects are limited and may not cause extreme weather phenomena such as hurricanes, floods or prolonged droughts. Conspiracies about man-made natural disasters have so far proved unfounded. Nevertheless, some false stories circulating in EU countries suggest that hurricanes in the US have been created artificially and the Democrats deliberately caused them to target states with a Republican majority or execute people. According to these conspiracies, also past hurricanes in recent US history have not casually hit states like Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama, but were precisely led there because their citizens tend to vote for the Republican party. False stories also provide other supposed evidence of the weather manipulation: for example, that Milton was predicted by cartoons or that an aircraft followed a strange path on the storm to supercharge it. A false post also alleged that Tim Walz, who is running for vice president along with Kamala Harris, had accused “Russian scientists” of creating Hurricane Milton.

Following the rhetoric adopted by Trump and his allies, disinformation detected in EU languages also concerns hurricane aid and the government’s actions to face the emergency. Baseless information claimed that – as also Musk suggested – the FEMA diverted funds to migrants, that relief funds are ridiculously low, or that authorities are preventing other organizations from contributing. In general, disinformation accused the Biden administration or Democratic governors of denying help to the hit territories, while it amplified Trump’s propaganda, magnifying its contributions to the emergency. A widespread AI-generated image also purported to show the former president rescuing people in the water.

Moreover, various false stories – also using AI – tried to engage readers and social media users by exaggerating the scale of the phenomena themselves and the devastation they brought to citizens.

More false stories about the US presidential campaign circulating in the EU

It’s not the first time that false stories in EU countries echo disinformation spread by Donald Trump. The false claim that Haitian migrants would be eating citizens’ pets in Springfield, Ohio, – made by Trump during the presidential debate – was the most widespread single false story in the EU in September, according to data collected for the latest EDMO fact-checking brief. More generally, false news spreading in the EU seems to favor the Republican candidate and its campaign.

In addition to the false stories that undermine the public image of Democratic candidates, that EDMO analyzed in a dedicated article, there are various false stories that try to put a bad light on the Democratic Party and its representatives. For example, exaggerating fractures within its leadership, using misogynistic and racist bias against prominent leaders, suggesting that the Democrats offer free abortions to encourage the practice, that they want to jail citizens accused of spreading disinformation, or that they manipulate photos so their rallies look more crowded.

False stories also accuse Democratic governors of implementing strange practices that would facilitate election rigging, a strand that – considering the previous experience of the 2020 elections – is not unlikely to escalate as election day approaches. In fact, various false stories of this kind are already circulating in EU languages, many of them recycled from the 2020 election. Such baseless information claims fraudulent practices such as non-existent registered voters, tamperable voting machines, or the alleged destruction of postal ballots cast for Trump.