Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign ‘troll army’ on X (formerly Twitter) attempted to weaponize Hurricane Idalia for political purposes, falsely claiming former President Donald Trump instructed his supporters — including a new mother in Congress — to not appear with the Florida Governor or promote the state’s response to the storm.
LEAK
1) Sources close to the Trump campaign have reported that the former president has demanded that his Florida congressional endorsers are not to repost news events featuring Gov. Ron DeSantis’ preparations for Hurricane Idalia…
— Max Twain (@MaxTwain24) August 29, 2023
One of the claims made by the anonymous “MaxTwain24” account is that Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) sent her staff to a press conference with Governor DeSantis addressing the emergency response to Hurricane Idalia – instead of appearing herself – because of the fictitious directive from former President Trump. In reality, Rep. Luna was unable to attend in person because she is recovering after having given birth several days prior to the press conference.
Max Nordau/Bryan Griffin has a new thread of lies today.
Today he’s claiming that Trump will not allow his Florida surrogates to mention the hurricane.
He alludes Anna Paulina Luna sent staff to a briefing to comply with this request.
In reality, Luna just had her baby! https://t.co/YL792wrdtu
— Lucky (@TheMagaHulk) August 29, 2023
https://twitter.com/MaxTwain24/status/1696378086994948156?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Several high profile trolls – who appear to regularly communicate with DeSantis campaign staffers Christina Pushaw and Bryan Griffin – amplified the demonstrably false accusations made by the MaxTwain24 account including oddball Chris Nelson, the troll account CryptidPolitics, and grifter and con-artist Bill Mitchell.
‼️LOOK! Trump is allegedly telling his Congressional surrogates to not post any of Ron DeSantis’s hurricane briefings!!
I looked at their X pages and this appears to be accurate.
Putting politics before lives.
Sick. https://t.co/PsNHcQa5bM
— Chris Nelson 🇺🇸 🏝 (@ReOpenChris) August 29, 2023
Trump World appears to be actively suppressing life-saving hurricane information for political reasons.
This is a sick way of thinking and operating. https://t.co/83nBGKRYMu
— Cryptid Politics 🇺🇸🐊 (@CryptidPolitics) August 29, 2023
If true this is both terrible and unsurprising. https://t.co/C0bXbs29Ta
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) August 29, 2023
Yep! Everyone please do me a favor and follow @MaxTwain24.
He seems to have inside info on what’s going on inside of the Trump campaign. They absolutely freaked out by him. https://t.co/JZOwbjwG9e
— Tim Cool (@KaladinFree) August 29, 2023
The Florida Congressional delegation targeted by the DeSantis campaign trolls for not posting about Hurricane Idalia had, in reality, addressed the storm on multiple occasions prior to the MaxTwain24 posts.
Rep. Luna had dedicated most of August 28th, a full day prior to the accusations, to keeping her constituents informed about the State of Florida’s emergency response. Cory Mills also began posting about the storm and relevant emergency information on August 28th. Rep. Greg Steube’s earliest post was at mid-day on August 27th. Rep. Matt Gaetz has retweeted emergency information from Gov. DeSantis several times on both his personal X account and his Congressional office X account.
All of these Members of Congress are backing Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination and have been targted by pro-DeSantis trolls following the MaxTwain24 posts smearing.
The DeSantis campaign trolls didn’t just stop with lying about Members of Congress. Nelson, specifically, has taken to targeting conservative activists on X as well, including The National Pulse editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam, claiming that these individuals have also been complicit in a ‘conspiracy’ to ignore Hurricane Idalia. The National Pulse published its first story on the storm on August 28th, over 24 hours prior to Nelson’s post.
Every one of these scumbags, many of whom live in Florida due to Governor Ron DeSantis’s Covid policies, have not mentioned a word about #HurricaneIdalia for political reasons.
Some of them are elected officials.
The hell with all of them.
Get the hell out of the state!! pic.twitter.com/vjoCHydLfq
— Chris Nelson 🇺🇸 🏝 (@ReOpenChris) August 30, 2023
Nelson, for his part, was ratioed in his replies. But his DeSantis-campaign handler, Christina Pushaw, spent the day doing yoga in Miami instead of aiding with the hurricane communications effort.
