Irony Alert: Trump Shares PSA Warning Against Spreading ‘False Information’

ANALYSIS | President Donald Trump, just a days after even Republicans criticized him for claiming nearly 3,000 people did not die last year in Puerto Rico due to two powerful hurricanes, shared a FEMA tweet warning against spreading false information. Trump ended Thursday evening as Hurricane Florence began bearing down on the North Carolina coast by slamming former Secretary of State of John Kerry, the longtime senator and failed 2004 Democratic presidential nominee who might be eying a 2020 run. He started Friday with Florence dumping rainfall measured in feet as it made landfall in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, with a series of tweets urging people in the storm’s path to take steps to remain safe. John Kerry had illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime, which can only serve to undercut our great work to the detriment of the American people. He told them to wait out the Trump Administration! Was he registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act? BAD! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2018 var rcrdTwitter = 1; A number of the president’s Friday morning posts amounted to a running public service announcement in the form of tweets and re-tweets that repeated on a loop. Amid them was a retweet of a FEMA post noting the agency has set up “rumor control page” on its website. [ Coons Wants Info on Kavanaugh’s Knowledge of ‘Sexually Explicit’ Emails ] “During disasters, it’s critical to avoid spreading false information,” FEMA wrote. Trump sharing that message is nothing but ironic, given how fast and loose he is with truth and facts. We have created a rumor control page for Hurricane #Florence that will be updated regularly. During disasters, it’s critical to avoid spreading false information. Always check with official sources before sharing. https://t.co/PAjGQZJ1Nt pic.twitter.com/z4L0r1YjAT — FEMA (@fema) September 12, 2018 var rcrdTwitter = 1; As of Aug. 1, he had made 4,229 “Trumpian claims,” according to the Washington Post’s Fact Checker staff. In June and July alone, he uttered 978. Overall, the newspaper concluded he had may nearly eight questionable claims per day as of Aug. 1. At a campaign rally last week, 68 percent of the 88 factual claims uttered by Trump were deemed by the Fact Checker staff to be, as they wrote “false, misleading or unsupported by evidence.” And just Thursday, Trump accused Puerto Rican officials and Democrats of lying about how many people died there after Hurricanes Maria and Irma pummeled the U.S. island territory in a coordinated effort to make him look bad. He accused them of artificially driving up the toll by adding deaths due to “any reason, like old age,” contending “they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths” when he left after a post-storms visit. He wrote bluntly his view that “3000 people did not die.” In the past, Republican lawmakers and other GOP officials have defended the president or tried to tamp down controversies spawned by his false or misleading statements. That was not the case Thursday, however. “I disagree with @POTUS– an independent study said thousands were lost,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott, the GOP nominee who is taking on Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, tweeted Thursday. “The loss of any life is tragic; the extent of lives lost as a result of Maria is heart wrenching. I'll continue to help PR”. [ Heard on the Hill: The Investigation Will Be Televised ] Scott followed Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., who earlier in the day also said he trusts the official death toll figures. Trump has praised Scott in the past; so far, he has not responded to the governor’s tweet. “You couldn’t get to people for a long time on the island because roads were washed out, power was gone and the casualties mounted for a long time,” Ryan said when asked about Trump's tweet. “So I have no reason to dispute those numbers. Those are just the facts of what happens when a horrible hurricane hits an isolated place like an island.” When Republicans break with Trump, it typically is a sign a statement is false. That was the case Thursday, and it only added to the irony of the Friday re-tweet. Watch: Trump’s 3 Legislative Priorities Before the Midterm Vote Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android.