While Donald Trump took credit for bringing truckloads of supplies to hurricane-ravaged Georgia last month, it seems the only thing he brought to Valdosta that day was traffic and a first-responder diversion from the relief effort.

“Today I have come to Valdosta with large semi-trucks, many of them filled with medical supplies, and a tank truck filled with gasoline. We have a couple of the big tankers filled with petrol coup-attempted former president said Sept. 30 in front of a destroyed furniture store in Valdosta.

Trump’s campaign later sent out a press release headlined “President Trump Delivers Relief, Support To Hurricane-Ravaged South,” which then said: “President Trump delivered relief supplies to help in the devastating aftermath of the hurricane: ‘We have many truckloads of various items, from oil to water to all kinds of equipment that will help … We are here today to stand in complete solidarity with the people of Georgia and with all those who are suffering.’”

In reality, these trucks came from Samaritan’s Purse, a charity run by the pastor Franklin Graham. They were already there when Trump flew into the local airport and then drove into town in his Secret Service motorcade, according to residents.

The motorcade and increased security needed at Trump’s photo opportunity required 42 officers from the Georgia State Patrol, according to documents from that agency seen by HuffPost.

A small number of Valdosta police officers and Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office deputies also provided traffic control at city intersections during Trump’s visit, Mayor Scott James Matheson said. He acknowledged that those officers were unable to continue relief and cleanup efforts while detailed ahead of Trump’s visit.

Not wanting to disturb the cleanup work was actually the reason why the president Joe Biden cited for waiting to visit until roads were open and immediate needs met. It was the same reason that Trump’s own energy secretary, Rick Perry, cited in 2017 when he explained why then-President Trump had not visited Houston after Hurricane Harvey.

“He really wanted to be where there were citizens affected. He was advised: the better place for you to go is Corpus Christi or San Antonio or Austin, where no search and rescue resources would be pulled away from what they’re doing,” Perry said.

Trump’s campaign defended the timing of the Valdosta visit. “He met the volunteers. He shook their hands,” said spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.

Leavitt further insisted that Trump was in fact responsible for delivering the supplies. “He didn’t miss at all,” she said, adding that Trump could rightfully take credit for those deliveries because he had started a GoFundMe online campaign for Hurricane Helene victims and had donated to Graham’s charity.

“He has donated millions to Samaritan’s Purse,” Leavitt said.

She would not describe when those donations occurred, nor would she say how much — if anything — Trump had personally given to the Helene GoFundMe. His name does not appear on the list of top donors to the GoFundMe campaign, which had contributed between $15,000 and $500,000 as of Friday.

In September 2017, following criticism in the press for how Trump’s inaugural committee had spent the $107 million it had raised primarily from wealthy individuals and corporate donors, it announced it was giving $1 million each to three storm-related charities: the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and Samaritan’s purse.

However, that $1 million gift to Graham’s charity was not Trump’s money, and he was not allowed by law to keep any of it for personal use.

Samaritan’s Purse declined to confirm whether Trump had donated anything to the group with his own money, citing its policy of not disclosing donors. The group runs a well-organized hurricane relief effort that for Helen sent tractor-trailers filled with supplies to Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. The relief to Valdosta was sent on September 29 and arranged at a church about 3 miles north of the place Trump visited the following afternoon.

Trump’s tax records released House Ways and Means Committee in 2022 and given to the New York Times by his niece, Mary Trumpmeanwhile, shows that the vast majority of Trump’s charitable donations over two decades have been in the form of conservation easements — promises that he won’t develop land he already owns.

Much of the $11 million in cash he donated to charities between 2005 and 2020 came when he ran for president in 2015 and 2016 and during his first year in office. In 2017, he reported $1.9 million in cash donations — the recipients are not listed in the forms released by the House committee — and that figure dropped to $500,000 in 2018 and $505,000 in 2019. In 2020, he reported giving zero.

It is possible that Trump gave millions to charities, including Samaritan’s Purse, but did not claim a tax deduction for the gifts. If Trump did indeed take credit for charitable work in Valdosta that he had nothing to do with, however, it wouldn’t be the first time.

In 1996, Trump appeared at a ribbon cutting for a new preschool in New York built for children suffering from AIDS. He stepped up on stage and took his seat with someone who was a real big donor to the Association for the benefit of children. Trump had not given the group a dime but pretended he had.

The Washington Post article 2016, which exposed the preschool episode, also found that Trump often bragged about charitable donations he had never made and that he had a history of using his charity “Trump Foundation” to pay personal and business bills.

In 2019 he was forced to close the foundationpay a $2 million fine and agree to restrictions on his ability to operate a charity in New York state going forward as part of a settlement with the state attorney general. Furthermore, his three eldest children, who sat on the foundation’s board, received leadership training for the charity.

Trump is running to win back the White House after losing re-election in 2020. Since Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida and then flooded parts of several northern states, he has been spreading many lies about President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris‘ response to the storm.

Matheson said Thursday he had no problem with Trump’s visit and the police resources it consumed because of the attention it brought to the devastation his city had suffered.

“All the cameras he brought … he helped tell our story,” Matheson said. “We took all the attention we could.”

Trump was not the first major political figure to visit, Matheson added. Republican Governor Brian Kemp and Democratic Senator John Ossoff both visited two days earlier, on September 28. Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Biden visited on October 3.

Matheson said he rode with Biden in his armored SUV to visit a flattened pecan farm on the edge of town and thanked the president for awarding federal grant money without requiring a local match for storm recovery.

“My turn with him was just a thank you turn,” he said.