President Donald Trump revealed that he plans to visit North Carolina in the upcoming days, noting that the state had been “abandoned by the Democrats” in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Trump revealed to reporters that he would be visiting Los Angeles, California — which recently faced several destructive wildfires, and he would also be visiting North Carolina and Nevada.
“We’re going to take care of Los Angeles, I’m going there — I’m going to North Carolina, which has been abandoned by the Democrats,” Trump said. “And, I’m going to North Carolina very importantly first, I’ll be there on Friday, and then I’m going from there to Los Angeles, and then I’m going to Nevada.”
Trump’s comments come months after communities in western North Carolina such as Asheville, the Village of Chimney Rock, and Swannanoa were faced with devastating flooding and destruction from Hurricane Helene. Communities in eastern Tennessee, George, Florida, and southwestern Virginia also faced flooding, landslides in the mountains, and destruction to homes and communities.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene’s destruction, several North Carolina residents revealed that they had been left to fend for themselves, noting that they did not care if the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) came or not. Residents added that they had seen no signs of FEMA or other “government agencies.”
Asheville resident, Jordan Lanning, explained to Fox News host Jesse Watters that the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene had been “too late.”
“It’s too late,” Lanning said. “I mean, they took too long. They had — it took them five days to get here. I mean, it took five days for Biden to come here and he didn’t think we were worth coming down to see us himself, he had to fly over on his way to Raleigh. It’s disgraceful, they keep saying, ‘We the People.’ There is no ‘We the People,’ it’s them versus us. They’re not for us.”
In a press release from October, FEMA announced that “more than $45 million” had gone towards Hurricane Helene relief efforts.
Out of the $45 million, over $17 million went to North Carolina, more than $23 million went to Florida, more than $150,000 went to Georgia, more than $124,000 went to Virginia, and more than $4.5 million went to South Carolina.
Trump has previously criticized the Biden-Harris administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, calling it a “disgrace” and a “betrayal.”
