US president accuses predecessor of leading ‘onslaught of lies’ about government’s response to the storms.

United States President Joe Biden has condemned misinformation about Hurricanes Milton and Helene as “un-American”, singling out his predecessor for making false claims about the government’s rescue and recovery efforts.

Speaking as Hurricane Milton was on the verge of making landfall in Florida on Wednesday, Biden said people in need of help were being put at risk by the “reckless, irresponsible and relentless” promotion of disinformation about the government’s response to the storms.

“Quite frankly, these lies are un-American,” Biden said in remarks at the White House.

“Former President Trump has led this onslaught of lies.”

Biden signalled out a number of baseless claims made by Trump, including that disaster relief funds had been diverted to migrants.

“What a ridiculous thing to say. It’s not true,” Biden said.

Asked by reporters why he thought Trump was spreading false claims about the government’s response, Biden said he did not know.

“I simply don’t know. You can speculate, but I just find it – I’ve used the phrase more than I’ve ever used it in my career – it’s un-American. It’s un-American. It’s not who the hell we are,” he said.

Biden also condemned the promotion of “even more bizarre” claims by Republican House of Representatives member Marjorie Taylor Greene, a close Trump ally.

“Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congresswoman from Georgia, is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather — we’re controlling the weather,” he said. “It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s got to stop.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for November’s presidential election, levelled similar criticism at Trump in an interview with CNN, branding his behaviour “unconscionable”.

“We all know it’s dangerous, and the gamesmanship has to stop at some point, the politics have to end, especially in a moment of crisis,” Harris said.

Trump on Wednesday reiterated his criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis.

“This administration has not done a proper job at all. Terrible, terrible,” Trump said at a campaign rally in the key swing state of Pennsylvania.

“We just pray for everybody,” he said. “We hope that God will keep them safe.”

Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida at around 8:30 p.m. local time, battering the coastal state with winds of up to 120 mph.

The National Hurricane Center has described Milton, which comes less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene killed at least 225 people across Florida and several other southern states, as “extremely dangerous” and “life-threatening”.

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Federal Reserve officials were at odds over the US central bank’s decision to lower interest rates by a half-point last month, according to a record of the meeting released on Wednesday.

Minutes from the September meeting indicated support for a gradual pace of rate cuts in future, but showed some divisions across the Federal Open Market Committee as the central bank embarked on its first easing cycle since 2020.

September’s rate decision, which lowered the policy rate to 4.75-5 per cent, was not unanimous, with Michelle Bowman becoming the first governor to dissent since 2005. She argued that a more “measured” quarter-point cut would “avoid unnecessarily stoking demand”.

The minutes, released on Wednesday, showed that some participants preferred a quarter-point cut, with “a few others” indicating they could have supported a move of that size instead of the larger-than-usual half-point cut.

“Several participants noted that a 25 basis point reduction would be in line with a gradual path of policy normalisation that would allow policymakers time to assess the degree of policy restrictiveness as the economy evolved,” the minutes said.

It would also signal “a more predictable path of policy normalisation”, a few people said, according to the minutes.

Officials supporting the half-point move — which the minutes showed had the support of a “substantial majority” — said it would “help sustain the strength in the economy and the labour market while continuing to promote progress on inflation, and would reflect the balance of risks”. Many of those officials thought a quarter-point cut in July — when the Fed held off any move — would have been “plausible”.

The Fed’s “dot plot” of officials’ individual rate projections, released at the meeting last month, showed most saw another half-point worth of cuts this year and more in 2025 when rates were estimated to drop to 3.25-3.5 per cent.

The minutes did not suggest support for another large rate cut, hinting instead that US central bankers were inclined to gradually lower rates to a “neutral” setting that no longer crimps growth.

“Participants anticipated that if the data came in about as expected, with inflation moving down sustainably to 2 per cent and the economy near maximum employment, it would likely be appropriate to move toward a more neutral stance of policy over time,” the minutes said.

Since the meeting, top Fed officials have signalled little urgency for another half-point cut at the next meeting in November, especially after a bumper jobs report for September.

That report quelled fears that the US was heading for recession and boosted the odds that the Fed would get inflation back to its 2 per cent target with minimal job losses.

In an interview with the Financial Times this week, New York Fed president John Williams said officials’ projections for smaller cuts in the coming meetings was a “very good base case”.

Chair Jay Powell has also said that the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee was “not a committee that feels like it’s in a hurry to cut rates quickly”.

On Wednesday, Dallas Fed president Lorie Logan also backed the Fed cutting rates “gradually”, citing “meaningful risk that inflation could get stuck above our 2 per cent goal”.

The Fed will next meet just days after the US presidential election and then again in mid-December. The central bank will on Thursday receive its final inflation report before the country votes.

Economists forecast that the annual inflation rate in the consumer price index fell to 2.3 per cent last month, the lowest level since February 2021.

Services-related inflation has been more stubborn, keeping the “core” measure, which strips out volatile food and energy items, more elevated. That gauge is expected to have steadied at 3.2 per cent in September.

LAS VEGAS — Sin City blew a kiss goodbye to the Tropicana before first light Wednesday in an elaborate implosion that reduced to rubble the last true mob building on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Tropicana’s hotel towers tumbled in a celebration that included a fireworks display. It was the first implosion in nearly a decade for a city that loves fresh starts and that has made casino implosions as much a part of its identity as gambling itself.

“What Las Vegas has done, in classic Las Vegas style, they’ve turned many of these implosions into spectacles,” said Geoff Schumacher, historian and vice president of exhibits and programs at the Mob Museum.

Former casino mogul Steve Wynn changed the way Las Vegas blows up casinos in 1993 with the implosion of the Dunes to make room for the Bellagio. Wynn thought not only to televise the event but created a fantastical story for the implosion that made it look like pirate ships at his other casino across the street were firing at the Dunes.

From then on, Schumacher said, there was a sense in Las Vegas that destruction at that magnitude was worth witnessing.

The city hasn’t blown up a Strip casino since 2016, when the final tower of the Riviera was leveled for a convention center expansion.

Fireworks are launched before the Tropicana Las Vegas towers are imploded on Wednesday.

David Becker/AP

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David Becker/AP

This time, the implosion cleared land for a $1.5 billion baseball stadium for the relocating Oakland Athletics, part of the city’s latest rebrand into a sports hub.

That will leave only the Flamingo from the city’s mob era on the Strip. But, Schumacher said, the Flamingo’s original structures are long gone. The casino was completely rebuilt in the 1990s.

The Tropicana, the third-oldest casino on the Strip, closed in April after welcoming guests for 67 years.

Once known as the “Tiffany of the Strip” for its opulence, it was a frequent haunt of the legendary Rat Pack, while its past under the mob has long cemented its place in Las Vegas lore.

It opened in 1957 with three stories and 300 hotel rooms split into two wings.

As Las Vegas rapidly evolved in the following decades, including a building boom of Strip megaresorts in the 1990s, the Tropicana also underwent major changes. Two hotel towers were added in later years. In 1979, the casino’s beloved $1 million green-and-amber stained glass ceiling was installed above the casino floor.

The Tropicana’s original low-rise hotel wings survived the many renovations, however, making it the last true mob structure on the Strip.

Behind the scenes of the casino’s grand opening, the Tropicana had ties to organized crime, largely through reputed mobster Frank Costello.

Costello was shot in the head in New York weeks after the Tropicana’s debut. He survived, but the investigation led police to a piece of paper in his coat pocket with the Tropicana’s exact earnings figure, revealing the mob’s stake in the casino.

By the 1970s, federal authorities investigating mobsters in Kansas City charged more than a dozen operatives with conspiring to skim $2 million in gambling revenue from Las Vegas casinos, including the Tropicana. Charges connected to the Tropicana alone resulted in five convictions.

There were no public viewing areas for the event, but fans of the Tropicana did have a chance in April to bid farewell to the vintage Vegas relic.

“Old Vegas, it’s going,” Joe Zappulla, a teary-eyed New Jersey resident, said at the time as he exited the casino, shortly before the locks went on the doors.