Just days after his inauguration, President Donald Trump will travel to visit areas affected by the recent natural disasters in North Carolina and California.
Trump is starting his trip on Friday by visiting those in North Carolina who were affected by Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in September 2024 and brought flooding and power outages across the state.
Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said Trump is likely making an early visit to the area to highlight his differences with former President Joe Biden.
“I think it allows him to make a case about the failure of the Biden administration still, almost as if he is still running a campaign, but also, obviously, talk about how he will make things better,” said Cooper, per The New York Times.
Trump has been critical of the Democratic management of Hurricane Helene, claiming that “Democrats don’t care about North Carolina.”
“What they’ve done with FEMA is so bad. FEMA is a whole [other] discussion, because all it does is complicate everything,” Trump said, per Fox 4 KDFW.
The President visiting Western North Carolina comes as no surprise after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) wrote in a statement that “both President Trump and Vice President Vance repeatedly reached out to me to check in on how Western North Carolina was doing.”
“That is a testament to how high of a priority the recovery and rebuilding process is for them. President Trump’s visit on Friday is welcome news for the thousands of families dealing with a state of uncertainty when it comes to securing housing,” Tillis wrote, per Fox News.
Following his visit to North Carolina on Friday, Trump will travel to California to meet with lawmakers and evaluate the damage from the wildfires that caused thousands of residents to lose their homes.
These wildfires quickly became one of the largest natural disasters the state has faced in its history. The fires destroyed thousands of homes and are expected to create economic damages of roughly $250 to $275 billion, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
One of the most notable aspects of this visit is that Trump opted against inviting California Gov. Gavin Newsom to join him. However, Trump will be joined by nearly a dozen other local officials.
Regardless, Newsom said he expects to meet with the President, and there will be “no limit to the resources” utilized during the briefing to provide information about the wildfires.
“I look forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president, welcome him, and we’re making sure that all the resources he needs for a successful briefing are provided to him,” said the governor, per Politico.