Donald Trump and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will receive a briefing Friday on hurricane destruction in the battleground state — the first joint appearance by the two men since 2020.
Trump, who spent much of the past four years denigrating Kemp for failing to help him overturn Trump’s loss in Georgia in the last presidential election, changed his tune in recent months as the current race for the presidency grew closer.
The two men will visit Evans, Georgia, on Friday afternoon to be briefed on the damage and to “make comments to the press,” Trump’s campaign said. But the event is not being billed as a campaign appearance, and Columbia County officials invited both men to attend the briefing, according to a person with knowledge of the appearance who was granted anonymity to speak freely.
On Monday, Trump traveled to Valdosta, Georgia, while Kemp toured damage elsewhere in the state. While there, Trump falsely stated that Kemp had failed to get President Joe Biden on the phone and that the federal government was not providing aid to the state, even though Kemp said otherwise.
At a rally in August, Trump attacked Kemp, calling him “a bad guy” and an “average governor” and scorned his wife, who months earlier had told a local television reporter that she planned to write in Kemp’s name this fall as president. Kemp, meanwhile, had avoided attending Trump events.
Still, Kemp said during this year’s election cycle that he would support the Republican candidate who won the presidential nomination and that he would work to help Republicans win the election this fall. And after attempts by mutual acquaintances to broker a truce, Trump began publicly praising Kemp later in August, shortly after Kemp told Fox News, “We have to send Donald Trump back to the White House.”
Kemp did not meet with Biden, who visited the state on Thursday.
