Trump calls federal response to Helene 'terrible' during Fayetteville town hall

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Former President Donald Trump, in his first trip to North Carolina since it was hit by Hurricane Helene, said the federal government’s response to the devastating storm had been “terrible.”

During a town hall with supporters in Fayetteville on Friday night, Trump also praised billionaire Elon Musk, a major supporter of his campaign, for providing Starlink satellite systems to Western North Carolina.

He reiterated his campaign promise to launch the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” and he vowed to change the name of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, if elected again.

The town hall came as rescue and recovery efforts continue around the clock in Western North Carolina. A total of 115 deaths had been reported by state and local officials as of Friday.

President Joe Biden surveyed the damage by air Wednesday and promised additional federal resources, including 1,000 active-duty U.S. Army soldiers from Fort Liberty, and 22 aircraft. Vice President Kamala Harris will visit affected areas Saturday, but her office hasn’t yet said where she’ll be traveling in particular.

On Thursday, Trump said in a social media post that he plans to visit Western North Carolina next week, but said he hasn’t set the date because he doesn’t “want to do anything that’s going to interrupt their rescue efforts.”

Federal response to Helene ‘terrible,’ Trump says

Trump said the federal government had done a “rotten” and “terrible job” of responding to the hurricane.

U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who moderated the event, also repeated a claim Trump made earlier this week without providing any evidence, that Republican-leaning areas of the state impacted by Helene had been deliberately neglected.

“I do believe that they have intentionally, and this is my opinion, not helped out those residents, because it’s red communities that are impacted,” Luna said, adding over the roaring crowd: “Let’s call a spade a spade. Do your job and do better.”

Trump made a similar claim Monday about North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Biden. Later that day, Biden told reporters that Trump was lying, and said that it was “simply not true” and “irresponsible.”

Trump also praised Musk at length for providing his company’s Starlink systems to restore some internet and cellular access to the western part of the state, where connectivity has been severely limited, if not nearly nonexistent, since the storm swept through the region a week ago.

Federal officials were quick to state Monday that dozens of Starlink systems had already been or were in the process of being shipped to Western North Carolina, and a White House spokesperson pointed out on social media that the systems had “already” been made available.

Vows to change Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg

Trump promised to change the name of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg if he is elected, which received a massive roar from the crowd.

He then answered questions from the audience about illegal immigration and the since-rescinded COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the military.

He repeated the vow he’s made several times to launch the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”

He referenced new data that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave Congress last month that showed over 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide were living in the country outside of the agency’s detention, according to NBC News.

What Trump supporters said at the town hall

Joan and Dave Carlson, a military family from Fayetteville, hoped Trump would say something about the devastation in Western North Carolina.

“I want him to acknowledge there are people there dying and they’re not getting the help they need,” Joan Carlson said before the town hall began.

Both said their top issues are immigration and the economy, in that order.

“I think it’s ridiculous that we have to compete with the current administration at all because they’re complete failures,” said Dave Carlson.

The Carlsons said they’re only recently starting to be vocal about their support for Trump. She still won’t wear a Trump shirt in public. He tried it at a hardware store recently and got some looks.

“We shouldn’t be divided over politics. We’re all people,” she said.

Ronald Rodriguez, who drove from nearby Clinton with his wife and their two daughters. also wanted Trump to talk “about the hurricane and the way it’s being handled.”

He said the country has been headed in the wrong direction under Biden.

“It was a whole lot easier four years ago. Groceries were cheaper, fuel, pretty much everything,” he said.

“Everything has gone up,” his wife Chasity Rodriguez said.

Ronald Rodriguez said high interest rates are killing his car dealership.

“People can’t afford to buy,” he said. “Last two years, we’ve had to do more repos than ever. It’s never been like that.”

Brendon Core also drove in from Clinton, wearing a red Trump-Vance hat, a blazer and blue jeans.

“I’ll tell you the real reason I vote Republican,” he said. “It’s because I’m a Christian.”

He said abortion and the border are two of the biggest issues for him. At 21, this will be his first time voting in a presidential election. He’s planning to cast his ballot in person on Nov. 5.

“I will be there,” he said.

NC Republican warns of ‘conspiracy theory junk’

As first responders, volunteers, national guardsmen, and others continue rescue efforts and deliver supplies to the region, there has been increased scrutiny of the emergency response in the immediate aftermath of the storm, and of the federal government’s response in subsequent days.

At the same time, local officials and lawmakers have said they’ve been inundated by people calling about conspiracy theories that have spread across social media.

The situation prompted North Carolina state Sen. Kevin Corbin, a Republican from Franklin who represents several counties in the western end of the state, to urge people to help stop “this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods in WNC,” calling it “a distraction to people trying to do their job.”

“Folks, this is a catastrophic event of which this country has never known,” Corbin wrote in a Facebook post. “It is the largest crisis event in the history of N.C. The state is working non-stop. DOT has deployed workers from all over the state. Duke power has 10,000 workers on this. FEMA is here. The National Guard is here in large numbers.”

Trump’s campaign also launched a GoFundMe fundraiser for victims of the hurricane throughout the Southeast, which had raised more than $5.3 million as of Friday.

The campaign said it had selected Samaritan’s Purse, Water Mission, Clinch Foundation and Mtn2Sea Ministries as recipients for the funds, and had “made an initial disbursement and will continue providing more funds as support continues to come in.”

Democrats slam Trump’s ‘extreme agenda for NC’

The presidential race in North Carolina was already tightening in recent weeks. Averages of recent polls maintained by 538 and RealClearPolitics show Trump leading Harris in the state by 0.9 and 0.6 percentage points, respectively, both of which are well within the margins of error of most polls.

Trump has won North Carolina twice, but by only 1.3 percentage points in 2020. His regular visits to the state have underscored how seriously his campaign has taken the state, as Harris has attempted to put it back in the Democratic column.

Ahead of Trump’s visit, Democrats held a news conference in Fayetteville on Friday morning slamming what they said was the GOP nominee’s “extreme agenda for North Carolina.”

State Sen. Val Applewhite, a Fayetteville Democrat, said Trump was “coming here to spread more of his dangerous lies, just like his running mate JD Vance who this week refused to admit Trump lost in 2020.”

Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin, meanwhile, said people won’t be able to afford Trump’s economic policy, equating his proposed tariffs on other countries to tax increases on working families.

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