Trump and Kemp to appear together for first time since 2020

Donald Trump and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will receive a briefing on hurricane destruction in the battleground state on Friday — the first joint appearance by the two men since 2020.

Trump, who spent much of the last four years denigrating Kemp for not helping him overturn Trump’s loss in Georgia during the last presidential election, changed his tune in recent months as the current race for president became increasingly close.

The two men are scheduled to visit Evans, Georgia, on Friday afternoon to be briefed on damage and to “deliver remarks to the press,” according to Trump’s campaign. But the event is not being billed as a campaign appearance, and officials in Columbia County invited both men to attend the briefing, according to a person with knowledge of the appearance, 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 been unable to get President Joe Biden on the phone and that the federal government was not providing assistance to the state, though Kemp said otherwise.

Trump during a rally in August lit into Kemp, calling him “a bad guy” and an “average governor” and disparaging his wife, who months earlier had told a local television reporter she planned to write in Kemp’s name for president this fall. Kemp, meanwhile, had avoided attending Trump events.

Still, Kemp said throughout the election cycle this year that he would support whichever GOP candidate won the presidential nomination and would work to help Republicans up and down the ballot this fall. And after efforts by mutual acquaintances to broker a truce, Trump began publicly praising Kemp later in August, moments after Kemp told Fox News, “We need to send Donald Trump back to the White House.”

Kemp did not meet with Biden, who visited the state on Thursday.