Posts falsely claim video shows hurricane relief under new Trump administration

"#BREAKING: Western North Carolina residents who have been sitting in FEMA hotels for months, are now being moved rapidly into long-term, fully furnished apartments.THE TRUMP EFFECT IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!" says a January 22, 2025 Threads post, referencing the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

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Screenshot of a Threads post taken January 29, 2025

The claim circulated elsewhere on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X.

Helene made landfall September 26, 2024, on the Florida Panhandle as a massive Category 4 hurricane before moving north and causing deadly floods in North Carolina, where it claimed the highest death toll. Less than two weeks later, Hurricane Milton made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast as a major Category 3 storm. 

A wave of misinformation about the disaster and the government's response to aid victims quickly followed.

In October 2024, then-president Joe Biden accused Trump of spreading lies after the Republican charged, without evidence, that the federal government was ignoring the disaster brought on by Hurricane Helene and denying help to his supporters.

Trump used his first trip since his return to office to visit disaster zones in North Carolina and fire hit Southern California on January 24, 2025. Throughout his visit, he decried FEMA, the agency that coordinates the federal response to disasters when states request help.

"I think we're going to recommend that FEMA go away and we pay directly -- we pay a percentage to the state," he said after meeting with victims of the floods.

He then signed an order to review FEMA, stepping up his effort to exert presidential power over the levers of government and to decide which states get money from Washington (archived here). 

But the resettlement of hurricane victims into apartments rather than hotels is unrelated to these actions.

Direct lease

The posts online include a video produced by FEMA, shared on the organization's YouTube page January 17, 2025 -- three days before Trump took office (archived here). It follows a woman named Kendall who lost her home in Bat Cave, North Carolina, now living in a new apartment.

Its caption says: "With the help of FEMA's Direct Lease program, she and her two dogs Millie and Milo moved into a fully furnished apartment last week."

An agency spokesperson confirmed: "The woman in the video was moved into this apartment through FEMA's Direct Lease program on Thursday, January 9, 2025."

She was also not the first to do so,  the spokesperson said in a January 29 email, "as survivors have been approved for apartments since November 2024."

"Approximately 301 applicants are in processing for FEMA-provided disaster housing, 151 have been approved, with five who have already moved out for a more permanent housing solution," the statement added.

Read more of AFP's reporting on hurricane misinformation here.