The fallout from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene is entering the political arena, with former president Donald Trump facing scrutiny for his comment that hurricane victims will be “okay” and for conservative proposals to end government weather forecasts.
At a rally Friday in Walker, Mich., Trump said he was thinking of those in Alabama and other states hit by the storm, saying, “We’re with you all the way, and if we were there we’d be helping you. You’ll be okay.”
KamalaHQ, the Harris campaign’s X account, immediately shared the video clip with its roughly 1.3 million followers, suggesting that the former president was downplaying a deadly disaster and showing a lack of empathy.
“You’ll be okay,” the tweet read, along with the parenthetical note, “(Dozens of deaths have already been reported)”.
On and off social media, the campaign and its supporters also hammered Trump for denying human-caused climate change, which scientists say is allowing hurricanes such as Helene to rapidly intensify. In addition, Harris allies highlighted that Project 2025 — the road map for a second Trump administration drafted by conservative think tanks in Washington — would privatize weather forecasting now done by federal agencies.
Trump’s supporters have argued that the Harris campaign took the “You’ll be okay” remark out of context.
“President Trump is traveling to Georgia to receive an update on the devastation from Hurricane Helene,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in an email. “Where’s Kamala? Oh, that’s right, she is wining and dining with her radical left donors in San Francisco.”
Leavitt added, “As President Trump has repeatedly said, Project 2025 has nothing to do with him or his campaign.”
Trump has repeatedly denied knowing anything about the blueprint or the people behind it, even though many of its authors held senior roles in his administration and he has praised Project 2025′s sponsor, the Heritage Institution. In 2022, Trump addressed a Heritage conference and said of their policy proposals, “They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.”
Project 2025 describes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent agency of the National Weather Service, as “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.” The blueprint also argues that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has played a central role in responding to Helene, should cover less of the costs of disasters.
Project 2025 would “kill the National Weather Service (NWS) and … kill emergency disaster funding for state/local govts,” the Lincoln Project, a group formed by disaffected Republicans, wrote on X. “Trump’s not just stupid, he’s dangerous.”
The plan does not propose eliminating NWS, which provides weather and climate forecasts and warnings for the United States and its territories. Rather, the plan suggests that the agency “should fully commercialize its forecasting operations” like outlets such as AccuWeather and the Weather Channel.
Some former Trump administration officials say they don’t share Project 2025’s vision for federal weather agencies, nor would they expect Trump to embrace them during a second term.
“There is 0% chance that anything in Project 2025 related to NOAA or weather will ever be considered or implemented,” Ryan Maue, a meteorologist who briefly served as NOAA’s chief scientist under Trump, wrote on X.
Project 2025 says little about the National Hurricane Center, another office within NOAA that provides lifesaving storm forecasts. The document suggests that the White House should “review the work of the National Hurricane Center” and that “data collected by the department should be presented neutrally, without adjustments intended to support any one side in the climate debate.”
Trump has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax.” During a news conference in New York on Thursday, he argued that “nuclear warming” poses a greater threat to humanity than global warming, echoing comments he made during an August conversation with billionaire Elon Musk.
“What [Democrats] should start mentioning is nuclear warming because we’re in grave danger,” the former president said. “That’s the warming you’re going to have to be very careful with.”
It is unclear what Trump means by “nuclear warming.” He could be referring to the possibility of nuclear war with Russia, which experts say would actually cool the planet’s climate.
During his first term, Trump faced criticism for his handling of major hurricanes. In 2018, he casually tossed rolls of paper towels into a crowd in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria a year earlier.
In a 2019 incident that became known as Sharpiegate, Trump used a marker to modify a NOAA forecast map and incorrectly suggest Hurricane Dorian could affect Alabama. An investigation later found political influence led NOAA to release a statement backing Trump’s false claim and undermining its own forecast.
“Trump has made it crystal clear that he will respond to climate disasters exactly the same way he did during his presidency,” Pete Jones, rapid response director at the liberal strategic communications firm Climate Power, said in an email.
