In the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, we saw another, more insidious whirlwind emerging: the spread of viral conspiracy theories about the Federal Emergency Management Agency by political agitators like Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, his running mate JD Vance and X CEO Elon Musk.

The time for appraising FEMA’s relief efforts will come. But the torrent of misinformation and attacks against FEMA has been a slap in the face to first responders like myself.

It’s easy to dismiss Trump’s insinuation about FEMA channeling funds to undocumented immigrants as cheap red meat thrown to a hungrily xenophobic MAGA fan base. Besides the fact that these stories are no more true than claims by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., that someone is “controlling” the weather, there is perhaps a more unsettling fact: U.S. agencies are struggling.

In fact, our federal agencies ‒ once the prize of the modern democratic world ‒ are crumbling after years of neglect by one administration after another. They have been decimated, left wanting for the bold investment needed to do their........

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