Donald Trump makes remarks on FEMA, religion at a Zebulon, Georgia church town hall
Crowds were lined up for hours outside Christ Chapel in Zebulon Wednesday in anticipation of seeing former President Donald Trump speak.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president in the upcoming election, was holding a “believers and ballots” town hall with Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. Trump took the stage just before 4 p.m., making remarks on frequent recent talking points for him: religion, hurricane recovery, Israel, immigration, domestic oil production and more.
But before noon, when doors were expected to open, attendees in line were dealing with heat in the crowded parking lot. One attendee appeared to have a medical emergency. Workers were handing and tossing water bottles into the crowd at about 11:45 a.m. Attendees started getting into the building just after 12 p.m.
A second person appeared to suffer a medical emergency in the afternoon in a crowd overflow area outside the venue and was taken inside on a stretcher.
Trump on religion, hurricane recovery, energy costs
Trump, who arrived on stage at about 3:50 p.m. Wednesday, addressed religion, Israel, hurricane recovery and more, claiming early in his remarks that the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave money to illegal immigrants instead of making adequate money available to hurricane relief efforts in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and elsewhere.
“FEMA, meaning the White House, did not do their job,” Trump said. “They did not do their job, and we’ve got to change it. We had a great FEMA when we were doing it. We had some problems too, and we had — FEMA came in and they handled it. But they’re not -- and they’ve spent a lot of their money on other things ... they’ve spent a lot of their money on the illegal migrants coming in, almost a billion dollars. And there was no money. And so now they’re going to have a special session in Congress to try and get money, and it’s too bad.”
Fact-checks have repeatedly indicated Trump’s claims are false. In a statement following Hurricane Helene, FEMA said it has not diverted any money intended for hurricane relief.
Trump also emphasized his support for Israel in its war against Hamas, criticizing President Joe Biden’s approach to foreign policy and border security. As he often has repeated, Trump accused Biden’s administration of letting criminals enter the U.S. illegally through the U.S.-Mexico border, and said border problems were “solved” when he was in office.
When asked about rising energy costs, Trump said if he were president again, the U.S. would drill for oil in America in an effort to reduce energy costs. He criticized Biden for gas prices, claiming they were significantly lower when Trump was in office.
Other speakers at the event
Ralph Reed, leader of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, spoke at the event prior to Trump and touted the former president as a pro-life, pro-religious freedom and pro-Israel candidate.
Brian Jack, who worked in Trump’s White House and is running for U.S. Congress in Georgia’s District 3, appeared on-stage before Trump and called Wednesday’s rally “the biggest political event in Pike County’s history.” The last time a president came to Zebulon was in the 1930s, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited.
Jones led the Q&A with Trump.
This wasn’t the first time Trump has made an appeal to the faithful, though. On Monday, Trump made a stop at the 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting in Concord, North Carolina, where he promised to create a task force to target “anti-Christian bias” and framed his survival of a July assassination attempt against him as an act of divine intervention.
Trump and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, have crisscrossed Georgia repeatedly in the lead-up to Nov. 5. The Peach State figures to be a vital swing state, just as it was in 2020 when President Joe Biden won the state by a slim margin and secured the race.
This story was originally published October 23, 2024 at 1:30 PM.