Trump, Kemp make rare joint appearance in Helene aftermath

Former President Trump and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Friday made their first public appearance together in years, putting aside simmering tensions to highlight how Hurricane Helene has devastated the state.

The two leaders toured storm damage in the community of Evans, meeting with local officials and families and offering support for those impacted by the storm. While Trump has attacked Kemp as recently as August, he offered kind words for the governor as he spoke about recovery efforts.

“Your governor is doing a fantastic job, I will tell you that,” Trump said in front of a stack of supplies, including diapers, bottled water and paper towels.

Asked specifically about the state of his relationship with Kemp, Trump called it “great.”

“We work together. We’ve always worked together very well,” he said.

Republicans have been keen to see Trump and Kemp patch things up given the importance of Georgia in November’s election. Trump narrowly lost the state in 2020, and polls show him locked in a tight race there with Vice President Harris.

The former president spent the weeks following the 2020 election pressuring Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to challenge the results.

Trump supported a primary challenger against Kemp, former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), in 2022, but Kemp defeated him and won the general election by a wider margin than he did in 2018.

Trump repeatedly attacked Kemp at an Atlanta rally in August, leaving Republicans scratching their heads as to why he wasn’t focused more on Harris, who had recently risen to the top of the Democratic ticket.

Kemp told CNN he did not vote for Trump in Georgia’s presidential primary in late May, though he has endorsed Trump in the general election.

Friday’s visit marked the second time this week Trump traveled to Georgia to look at storm damage. He traveled to Valdosta on Monday and was not joined by Kemp.

Kemp told reporters on Friday at least 33 Georgians had died as a direct result of Hurricane Helene, and that the storm had wiped out a large percentage of the state’s crops. 

Trump touted his efforts to encourage Elon Musk to provide Starlink satellites to help restore communications in hard-hit areas, and he cited donations from prominent businessmen like Larry Ellison and Steve Witkoff to help with the recovery.

The former president attacked the Biden administration’s response to Helene as “terrible,” repeating a false claim that has grown prominent among Republicans that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spent disaster relief funds to assist migrants.

The White House earlier Friday called such claims “poison” and argued it was distracting from ongoing recovery efforts and preventing those in need from getting the help they needed.

Kemp earlier in the week expressed his appreciation for the role the federal government has played in responding to Hurricane Helene, contradicting comments from Trump, who claimed Monday that the governor had trouble reaching Biden.