With the latest polls showing Trump in a dead heat with Vice President Kamala Harris to win the Tar Heel State, the former president made a pitch to voters disillusioned with the Biden administration’s disaster relief response on Monday. With at least 95 North Carolinians dead from the storm, and more than 50 people across the state missing, Trump went to the western part of the state, which was particularly devastated by the storm, and later rallied supporters in Greenville, North Carolina. 

Flanked by Helene’s wreckage and toppled buildings, Trump stood at a lectern for a press conference in Swannanoa, North Carolina, where he said that “many Americans in this region felt helpless and abandoned and left behind by their government.”

He told voters to “get a little bit better crew in to do a better job than has been done by the White House” before saying he had come to the state to deliver a message ahead of Election Day. 

“We will never forget about you. We’re going to be working with you for a long time to come to get it back together. When I’m president, I will stand with you until the communities are fully rebuilt,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens with the election. On Jan. 20, you’re going to have, I think, a new crew coming in to do it properly and help you in a proper manner.”

Later in the day, Trump held a rally in Greenville, where he said that “we just have to make sure we vote” before he touted Helene survivors in the state who he said are setting “a record in early voting.”

“These are people that lost their houses in some cases. Unfortunately, they lost family members, and yet they set a record in early voting. … Isn’t that amazing?” the former president said. “That is Trump territory too, so that should be a good thing.” 

With vital infrastructure destroyed by the hurricane, the state has taken a series of emergency actions to make sure residents can continue to vote on Election Day.

“We’ve got a new early voting plan,” Buncombe County Board of Elections Chairman Jake Quinn said in a statement announcing new times and locations for early voting. “Please everybody, spread the word.”

Trump’s latest remarks in Buncombe County come as he has become one of the most prominent critics of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to help Helene survivors, though the agency has pushed back his claims as false.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said earlier this month: “Just because somebody doesn’t see a person in a FEMA shirt doesn’t mean that we’re not in the area.” 

Other elected officials, including Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), have pushed back on criticism about federal relief efforts as well, though the Republican congressman has said: “It’s true that FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene has not been perfect.”

But Trump’s message that the government’s disaster relief response to Helene has been “not good” is resonating with at least some voters in North Carolina. 

A number of Helene survivors added their support to Trump during the Swannanoa press conference, with one local resident who had lost his small business to the powerful storm saying Trump’s “indomitable spirit” had given the community hope. 

Trump also invited ex-Green Beret Adam Smith, who has led North Carolina’s disaster relief operation “Savage Freedoms Relief Operation,” to speak to the press. 

Smith, who has expressed concern over FEMA’s response to Helene, said he was grateful that Trump had not “forgotten” western North Carolina.

“The biggest fear that Western North Carolina is sitting on right now, at least from the communities we’ve talked to, is being forgotten. And to have you here and have an opportunity to have this conversation at a national level will keep western North Carolina on the map and not leave the communities holding the bag on the back end of this, so we’re very grateful that you’ve shown up,” Smith said. 

While the Biden administration has approved nearly 2 billion in FEMA funding for areas hit by the hurricane and mobilized at least 1,500 troops to help devastated communities, Smith has worried federal agencies are hindering private sector efforts. In previous comments to the New York Post, he said the government had led inefficient and bureaucratic efforts to help people struggling to recoup from the hurricane.

“Nobody out here wants the federal agencies to come in. FEMA has walked into operations centers like this and has attempted to just take over and tell them what they’re doing is illegal and they’re not allowed to keep going. I’ve seen it firsthand in this area,” he said. 

During comments to the Associated Press, one North Carolina voter supporting Harris accused people such as Smith of spreading disinformation and lies about FEMA’s response.

“FEMA is here. FEMA is helping the best they can,” she said.

While Smith and Trump have criticized the federal response to Helene, the former president has praised the private sector for rising to meet the challenges caused by the hurricane.

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“In North Carolina’s hour of desperation, the American people answered the call much more so than your federal government,” Trump said.

“There are great first responders. They’ve never let us down. They never, this was a tough one, but they never let us down. And the emergency personnel who leaped into action with such great heroism, the incredible firefighter and his nephew who lost their lives trying to save their neighbors. A lot of heroes really developed with this that we talked about for a long time to come. They will not be forgotten,” the former president said.