Rudy Giuliani Says Earthquakes Targeting 'Communist' US States

Rudy Giuliani has said "the communist states are getting earthquakes" and suggested this means "somebody's sending us a message" after a rare 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit the New York City tri-state area on Friday.

Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and a close Donald Trump ally, made these comments during Friday's edition of his America's Mayor Live show which was broadcast on YouTube and X. He later said his remarks would lead "Marxist automatons" who "don't have a sense of humor" to conclude he was a conspiracy theorist.

Friday's earthquake struck at 10:23 a.m. ET with its epicenter near Whitehouse Station in New Jersey, just miles from the Trump-owned National Golf Club in Bedminster, according to the federal U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). New York officials said there were no "major damage reports" in the city after the incident.

Speaking on his show, Giuliani said: "We were in the communist state of New York and then we were in Connecticut and we just escaped all the earthquakes then we got to Massachusetts which probably had some earthquakes and we got to New Hampshire where there were no earthquakes which is telling me that somebody's sending us a message.

"The communist states are getting earthquakes. Look at California. You can't have more earthquakes than California. You want to figure out why?"

People in Connecticut reported feeling Friday's earthquake as well as an aftershock, which occurred several hours later.

Giuliani continued: "Now they're going to say I'm a conspiracy theorist, I'm crazy. You know why? Because they don't have a sense of humor. They're not even human anymore. They're Marxist automatons."

New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and California are all traditionally blue states run by Democratic Party governors. New Hampshire's governor, Chris Sununu, is a Republican.

A 36-second clip of Giuliani's remark was shared on X by Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of self-styled pro-democracy MeidasTouch Network, where it received more than 300,000 views.

Newsweek contacted Rudy Giuliani for comment via the online inquiry form on his official website outside of usual business hours.

Giuliani isn't the only prominent Republican to have suggested divine intervention could have played a role in Friday's earthquake. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene made this claim in a post on X.

She said: "God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent. Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come. I pray that our country listens."

On Monday a solar eclipse will block out the sun across 13 states, thrusting millions into darkness during the early afternoon. Speaking at a press conference on Friday afternoon, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) seismologist Paul Earle insisted this is unconnected to Friday's earthquake. He said: "This is unrelated to the solar eclipse. Earthquakes of this size have no correlation with celestial bodies."

On its website, the USGS states: "It has never been demonstrated that there is a causal relationship between space weather and earthquakes. Indeed, over the course of the Sun's 11-year variable cycle, the occurrence of flares and magnetic storms waxes and wanes, but earthquakes occur without any such 11-year variability.

"Since earthquakes are driven by processes in the Earth's interior, they would occur even if solar flares and magnetic storms were to somehow cease occurring."

The revelation that the epicenter of Friday's earthquake was just a few miles from one of Trump's golf courses led to a wave of memes and jokes aimed at the presumptive Republican presidential candidate on X.

One user linked it to the former president selling $59.99 Bibles, commenting: "Maybe Trump was in Bedminster selling bibles again and God was like enough already."