ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump is changing his stance on the Republican governor of Georgia after he launched a series of scathing attacks at a rally several weeks ago.
In a social media post, Trump thanked Gov. Brian Kemp “for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a victory is so critical to the success of our party and, more importantly, our country.”
“I look forward to working with you, your team, and all my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote.
Trump’s words are a stark contrast from his remarks at a rally earlier this month, where Trump lambasted the governor at an Atlanta arena just blocks from the Georgia Capitol, blaming him for his narrow defeat in the state in 2020.
In a roughly 10-minute tirade on August 3, Trump slammed Kemp for not acquiescing to his false theories about election fraud. He also accused the governor of failing to stop a local district attorney from prosecuting him and several associates for trying to overturn the results.
“He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he’s a very average governor,” Trump said at the time. “Little Brian, little Brian Kemp. Bad guy.”
Trump’s statement Thursday came moments after Kemp appeared on Fox News and told host Sean Hannity that he continues to support Trump and will help him win Georgia’s 16 electoral votes.
“We need to send Donald Trump back to the White House,” Kemp said.
That could mean Kemp is using his own well-funded political organization to turn out Republican voters across the state, even as some GOP operatives still fear that Trump’s own field brigade could be ineffective. So far, Kemp has said his organization is only working in a handful of state legislative districts.
Kemp’s endorsement could also be a useful signal to moderate and conservative voters who supported Kemp but have doubts about Trump.
Both could be crucial as Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has put Georgia on track for another close election.
Trump called Fox News after Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention and was asked if he was making any specific effort to make amends with Kemp.
“Well, I just saw Brian with a very good man — have you ever heard of a man named Sean Hannity? And he was interviewed by Sean Hannity and he was very nice and he said he wants Trump to win and he’s going to work with me 100 percent and I think we’re going to have a very good relationship with Brian Kemp,” Trump said.
A spokesperson for Kemp declined to comment.
Republican vice presidential candidate and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, campaigning Thursday in Valdosta, the largest city in predominantly Republican southern Georgia, said he was confident Kemp would remain an effective ally.
“I’ve read the headlines,” Vance told reporters. “Brian Kemp and Donald Trump have had some disagreements. I can guarantee you 100 percent that Brian Kemp is behind this ticket. He wants us to win.”
Kemp had backed down when Trump named his wife after Marty Kemp told an interviewer that Trump had not earned her vote. On X, Kemp told Trump to “leave my family out of this” and urged him to stop “making petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans or dwelling on the past.”
But Kemp continued to support the Republican Party and continued to attack Harris.
“We’ve got to win from the top of the ticket down,” Kemp said Thursday on Fox. “I’ve said consistently for a long time, we can’t afford four more years of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And I think Kamala Harris and Tim Walz would be even worse.”
That’s partly because it’s clear that Kemp, who has raised his national profile as vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association, is still eyeing political options, including a 2026 Senate run against Democrat Jon Ossoff or perhaps even his own presidential bid in 2028. Abandoning Trump could complicate Kemp’s Senate run and destroy his chance to become the nominee of what is now solidly Trump’s Republican Party.
But Kemp is also unwilling to debase himself for Trump. The two have a long history of disagreement, dating back to Kemp’s nomination of Kelly Loeffler to the U.S. Senate in 2019 over Trump’s preferred choice of then-Rep. Doug Collins. It continued through Trump’s criticism of Kemp’s handling of the pandemic. Trump has repeatedly argued that Kemp owed his first election as governor in 2018 to Trump’s support in the Republican primaries, even though Kemp was already on the rise.
But the relationship soured when Kemp repeatedly rejected Trump’s requests to intervene after Democrat Joe Biden narrowly won the 2020 Georgia election. For example, Kemp rejected Trump’s request that Kemp convene Georgia lawmakers for a special session to replace Biden’s electors with ones aligned with Trump.
Trump retaliated by recruiting former U.S. Sen. David Perdue to derail Kemp’s reelection bid in the 2022 GOP primaries. But Kemp shamed Perdue, and by extension Trump, by winning nearly 75% of the vote in the primary. After defeating Democrat Stacey Abrams by a comfortable margin, Kemp has spent the past two years pressuring Republicans and Trump to stop litigating their grievances over the 2020 election and instead look forward by appealing to voters on economic issues.
Some Republicans tried to settle the dispute.
“Kemp made it very clear that he was 100 percent behind Trump,” said Georgia Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon, a former senator who has tried to bridge the gap between Kemp and Trump.
Loeffler, who remains a major Republican donor and hosted a fundraiser for Trump in April, was among those who issued a celebratory statement on Thursday.
“No one fights harder for America than Donald Trump,” Loeffler wrote on X. “No one works harder for Georgia than Brian Kemp. And there is nothing more unifying than saving this country from the threat of Kamala’s communist takeover. Proud to join them in the fight to Make America Great Again!”
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Colvin reported from New York.
