Elon Musk on fema: what the evidence says · JRE #2281
SUBJECT: FEMA
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
if you look at, say, you know, fema, the agency that was paying for illegal aliens to stay at luxury hotels in New York, was fema.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
In February 2025, Musk (via his DOGE team) publicly claimed FEMA had sent roughly $59 million to $80 million to New York City for "luxury hotels" housing migrants, and characterized the funds as disaster relief money diverted from Americans. Fact-checkers confirmed FEMA did award New York City about $59 million to $81 million in fiscal year 2024, but that money came from the Shelter and Services Program, a fund Congress created in 2023 and financed through U.S. Customs and Border Protection appropriations (administered by FEMA), not FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, which is used after natural disasters. Of the money New York City received, about $19 million went to hotel costs, and city comptroller data show the city paid an average of $156 per night per room in 2024, below the U.S. General Services Administration's allowable per-diem rate of $179 to $342 for New York City, and well under the roughly $400 to $1,000 nightly rate typical of actual luxury hotels. The underlying dispute over the roughly $80 million clawback was real, but describing the payments as disaster-relief funds spent on "luxury hotels" misstates both the funding source and the nature of the housing. PolitiFact rated a nearly identical Musk claim about this same New York City FEMA money "False" in February 2025.