Trump Fans Go Viral With Bizarre Conspiracy Theories About Hurricane Milton

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Estimated read time 8 min read


Hurricane Milton became a category 5 storm on Monday and is on track to hit the west coast of Florida on Wednesday afternoon or evening. The hurricane is unusual for both its trajectory and rapid intensification, something climate scientists attribute to the warmer ocean temperatures of the Gulf of Mexico caused by climate change. But supporters of Donald Trump on social media have a different explanation for the hurricane’s dangerous potential. They say it’s President Joe Biden’s fault because the Democrats are engaging in weather manipulation to harm Republicans.

Matt Wallace, one of the most popular purveyors of garbage conspiracy theories on X and a vocal supporter of Trump, tweeted about a hurricane monitoring flight by NOAA on Sunday where he clearly tried to suggest something fishy was happening.

“Rumors are circulating about the strange-looking NOAA ‘data collection’ plane flight pattern through Hurricane Milton,” Wallace tweeted.

While Wallace didn’t directly say he believes these flights are for weather modification, he’s using a strategy that disinformation accounts often use by “just asking questions.” By refraining from a declarative statement, Wallace often avoids getting fact-checked in a direct manner and still gets boosted in X’s algorithm, allowing his followers to fill in the blanks.

Wallace also tweeted about Milton just as the hurricane was first forming, writing, “LOOK AWAY!!! It’s just a coincidence that days after one of the most disastrous storms in U.S. history, another monster with insane cloud coverage has formed in the Gulf of Mexico.”

It’s not suspicious that there are hurricanes during hurricane season in the U.S., which runs from June until November. That’s just how the world works. The part that’s odd is how much more intense these storms have become so rapidly, something that’s explained by the warmer ocean waters, exacerbated by climate change. Those NOAA flights are simply how we get useful information about hurricanes and there’s absolutely no evidence that they’re being used to control the weather.

Grant Cardone, a private equity fund manager and another supporter of Trump, also spewed absolute nonsense about Hurricane Milton over the weekend, racking up over 4 million views.

“I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico. Been watching storms since I was a young boy. I have NEVER seen a storm start here and go east. Do you think Gov’t is using technology to manipulate weather patterns & storms?” Cardone asked on Sunday.

While Wallace’s tweet didn’t receive a Community Note on X, Cardone’s did, which pointed out that hurricanes don’t typically follow the trajectory that Milton is on, but they have happened at least six times in recorded history.

The account @BGatesIsaPyscho is dedicated to spreading insane conspiracy theories and also contributed to the absurd narrative on social media over the weekend.

“They just transformed the originally benign Tropical Depression that is now a Category 5 Hurricane Milton. Insane,” the account tweeted on Monday. It’s not actually clear who runs the account, but it often goes viral during major events like this.

And it’s not just Trump supporters on X who are helping spread idiotic conspiracy theories. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia got in on the action, doubling down on her weather control theories that started with Hurricane Helene.

“Yes they can control the weather. Here is Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan talking about it. Anyone who says they don’t, or makes fun of this, is lying to you. By the way, the people know it and hate all of you who try to cover it up,” Greene wrote over the weekend.

Greene has been among the conspiracy theorists who suggest hurricanes are being directed at regions with the highest concentrations of Trump voters in order to rig the upcoming election that’s happening on November 5. And while geoengineering is a real thing with actual possibilities for the future, there’s absolutely no evidence that the U.S. government is modifying the weather to influence the election, let alone for any other plausible explanation.

Stew Peters, a far-right influencer who’s called Adolf Hitler a “hero,” tried to prove that Hurricane Helene was a weather control operation by the government last week by asking his Amazon Echo device. Peters was parroting the theory that North Carolina was being cleared of homes because lithium mining needed to occur to build electric cars. What’s actually happening when Peters asks his home device that question? The Alexa is just scraping conspiracy theories from the internet and presenting them as fact, a common problem with artificial intelligence tools.

The conspiracy theories on X are so common that people are making jokes about them, ridiculing all the people who insist climate change is fake but hurricane machines controlled by Democrats must be real.

“Climate change isn’t real. Bunch of globohomo bullshit I reckon. You know what is real. A hurricane machine that spawns randomly in various parts of the deep blue sea that generates cat 4-5 hurricanes designed to punish Christians and patriots and cyber truck owners,” one user joked on Monday.

And even some Trump supporters were clearly frustrated by the spread of ridiculous conspiracy theories on Monday, with right-wing pundit Erick Erickson tweeting that he assumed Russian disinformation actors were behind the spread of such obvious bullshit.

“I’m beginning to believe the Russian bots really are back. Mention the absurdity of government steering hurricanes and a lot of small accounts suddenly show up insisting it is true,” Erickson wrote.

It’s entirely possible that Russian bots are helping amplify these ridiculous conspiracy theories on X, but the more likely explanation is that the site has just become overwhelmed with far-right users who are free to spread garbage faster than it can be fact-checked. X has become quite a breeding ground for disinformation since Elon Musk bought the platform in late 2022. The billionaire’s changes have allowed far-right voices to become amplified. For instance, buying a blue checkmark allows those users to get more exposure and pushed in front of more eyeballs on the site, even if they’re spouting the most inane conspiracy theories on the entire internet.

Milton is just one of seven hurricanes in recorded history to have intensified from a Category 1 to a Category 5 in less than 24 hours, according to the Washington Post. And mainstream journalists are acknowledging that climate change is the reason this storm has gained strength so rapidly. Meteorologist John Morales with NBC6 in South Florida got choked up looking at the way that Milton was intensifying on Monday, knowing that it would mean a lot or misery and destruction for the region.

If you’re in the projected path of Hurricane Milton, you should get out now. Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri stressed just how serious this is in an emergency press conference on Sunday afternoon.

“This is going to be bad. That’s all you need to know,” Gualtieri said according to Axios. “Everyone just needs to get out.”

 





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