Trump surrounded toilet rolls and nappies during Hurricane Helene aid speech
Ex-President Donald Trump’s latest move touting the Hurricane Helene relief efforts of fellow Republicans had him standing next to a mound of toilet paper rolls and nappies.
Trump appeared next to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp near Augusta for the first time since the former president attacked him for refusing to help him overturn the 2020 election results in the battleground state.
The two recently made up privately, and on Friday afternoon stood before piles of supplies that included Huggies baby diapers, other paper products and water in front and behind a table and podium.
Trump on Friday afternoon said Kemp was doing a ‘fantastic job’ on recovery efforts. Kemp returned the praise.
‘I want to thank President Trump for coming back to our state a second time… and keeping the national focus on our state as we recover,’ he said.
The governor left the pavilion where the press conference was held just as Trump answered questions from the media, and in the process attacked President Joe Biden.
Trump lost Georgia to Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes in the last election cycle. Trump’s efforts to subvert the election results there led to his indictment and an ongoing legal case. On Friday, Trump seemed to make a rare confession that he had lost in the Peach State.
‘I won easily in 2016,’ Trump said.
‘We actually were very close last time.’
After Trump left, National Guard service members started taking away the toilet paper, diapers and supplies.
Trump earlier visited the Columbia County Performing Arts Center in Evans, which was badly bettered by Helene after the Category 4 storm landfall in Florida on September 26.
Trump has made a numerous false claims in the aftermath of Helene, which has killed at least 215 people as of Friday.
On Monday, Trump claimed of Kemp: ‘He’s been calling the president, hasn’t been able to get him.’ Trump neglected to mention that Kemp said Biden missed his call but ‘called him right back’.
That same day, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: ‘I’ll be there shortly, but don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.’ There is no evidence that the Biden administration withheld aid to places that are traditionally red.
And in a Michigan rally on Thursday, Trump said: ‘Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants.’ In reality, funds to migrant shelters did not run up in the billions of dollars or deplete money for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Friday was not the first time Trump has been surrounded by somewhat comical products to make a point.
In August, Trump in New Jersey pitched his economic plan and blamed his 2024 opponent Kamala Harris for rising prices while surrounded by pastries, pie, sweet cereals and other sugary breakfast foods.
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