A rumor that circulated online in August 2025 claimed entertainment icon Oprah Winfrey took a $40 million construction grant from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency to rebuild a mansion after the 2023 Maui wildfires, even though her home didn't burn down. Snopes received reader emails and searches asking about this matter, including two people asking if Winfrey received a $22 million FEMA grant — as opposed to $40 million.
For example, on Aug. 22, a Threads user posted (archived) a meme showing a photo of Winfrey superimposed over an aerial picture of a large house. The meme read, "Oprah Winfrey took a $40 million construction grant from FEMA to rebuild her mansion after the Maui fires. The only problem is...not a single inch of her property burned." The post — receiving over 59,000 views — also displayed the text caption, "Get the $40M back. BTW, where's all the missing Maui children?"
(@kevinsmassage/Threads)
Other users posted this rumor on Facebook, iFunny.co (archived), Gettr (archived), Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads (archived), TikTok (archived) and X (archived). One X post (archived) promoting the claim received more than 388,000 views. These users seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events.
However, the rumor originated from a self-described "satirical" Facebook page and despite its popularity had no basis in fact. Searches of DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no evidence of Winfrey receiving a FEMA grant following the 2023 Maui wildfires. Those fires, beginning on Aug. 8, 2023, killed at least 102 people, raced through the historic town of Lahaina and destroyed thousands of buildings. The fires also spawned false and unfounded conspiracy theories, which readers might still find popping up in social media comments, including on TikTok. Those comments sometimes receive plenty of likes. At the same time, they also lack credible evidence to support their claims. For example, FactCheck.org previously reported a false rating for the claim alleging "over 1,000 children are missing" following the Hawaiian fires.
Meanwhile, a Bing search for the rumor at hand displayed an inaccurate answer — generated by Microsoft's artificial-intelligence platform — claiming Winfrey truly received the $40 million grant. The AI tool cited an unrelated New York Post article and the aforementioned iFunny.co meme post as its sources.
About America's Last Line of Defense
The rumor about Winfrey accepting a large FEMA grant originated with America's Last Line of Defense — a network of Facebook pages and websites describing their output as satirical in nature.
On Aug. 22, a manager for the America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page posted (archived) the same meme later reposted by other users. The page also hosted posts from April and May containing variations of the rumor, including the $22 million claim from July.
(America's Last Line Of Defense/Facebook)
The America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page's bio reads, "The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash. Nothing on this page is real." The meme itself also contains a small logo with very small words also saying, "Nothing on this page is real."
According to a TMZ.com article, while Winfrey truly owns property in Maui, the meme's photo shows her Montecito home in Santa Barbara County, California.
For further reading, Snopes previously debunked provably false claims about Winfrey's genuine efforts to donate to and help victims following the Maui wildfires.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.