What started as a disjointed speech in Greenville from President Donald Trump ended as a rallying cry from the president to elect struggling Republican candidates on North Carolina’s ballot.

Trump went as far as to promise $5,000 to every adult citizen if Republicans take back the House and Senate — a promise he’s made in the past — and to also tie the election results to pending lawsuits by Marines who have suffered serious medical complications from contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.

“Tonight, I’m pleased to announce that my administration has delivered $1 billion in cash settlements to these veterans and their families, most of whom are based here,” Trump said.

Trump said if Republicans win the House and Senate he will direct the Department of Justice to settle all remaining legitimate claims as soon as possible.

“If we don’t win, there’s no money,” Trump said. “If we do win, you’re getting it."

Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, immediately posted on social media in response to Trump’s statement.

“Real leaders fight for the people, not for power,” Stein said. “To condition doing the right thing by sick North Carolinians on who wins the election is foul.”

Andrew Bates, a former spokesman for President Joe Biden and an adviser to former Gov. Roy Cooper’s Senate campaign, called Trump’s statement “an anti patriotic thing for the president to say.”

Boosting Whatley and bashing Cooper

Trump, standing at Pitt-Greenville Airport, told the audience of around 1,500, according to pool reports, that he came to North Carolina for two reasons: “I want to tell you how bad Cooper is, and I want to tell you how great Michael Whatley is.”

Cooper, 69, a Democrat from Raleigh, is running against Whatley, 58, a Republican from Gastonia. And Cooper has led every poll since the two men entered the race in July 2025, often by double digits.

That’s led key national Republican groups to pull ad funding from Whatley’s campaign and invest in other candidates around the country.

And as the rally was underway, news broke that the No Going Back PAC, a super PAC tied to Trump, pulled out of North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District race, Punchbowl News reported.

Only North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, served by Rep. Don Davis, a Democrat from Snow Hill, had originally been expected to be a battleground, and Republican legislators redrew Davis’ district to favor a win for their party. Davis is running against former Trump adviser Laurie Buckhout, a Republican from Edenton.

But with Trump’s job approval at an all-time low, and Whatley’s inability to raise his name recognition, despite having led both the state and national Republican parties, there’s been a trickle-down effect to at least five congressional districts among the state’s 14.

And that includes the 11th Congressional District, where state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom added her name to the Republican ticket at the last hour after U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican from Flat Rock, withdrew from the race due to a sexual harassment scandal involving congressional employees.

Whatley, Buckhout and Balkcom all spoke on stage both before and during Trump’s speech.

The same day, the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics changed the 1st and 11th Congressional District ratings from “toss-up” races to “leans Democrat.” Both are in districts that typically are solidly Republican.

Republicans hope to ramp up turnout

Early Republican turnout was down compared to where it stood in 2022, the last midterm election, according to Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper.

State Republican Party Chairman Jason Simmons kicked off Tuesday night’s rally by telling the audience to vote Republican up and down the ballot and to bring friends.

“Make sure to go vote, but don’t go alone,” Simmons said.

At least one person in the audience said she still hadn’t made up her mind, even about Trump.

Maggie Lynn Heron-Heidel, who moved to Tarboro six months ago from Connecticut, write dystopian books and said “there are a lot of people who insist Trump is straight out of a dystopian novel.”

She said she hadn’t made up her mind on Trump or his policies so she came to hear him speak.

And some of her top concerns were rising costs, especially at the grocery store.

Gas prices

Trump didn’t address groceries but did talk about gas prices, which have risen as Trump continues a war he started against Iran to stop the country from having nuclear weapons.

Trump said Tuesday night, “This is a very small price to pay for keeping a nuclear weapon away from the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.”

He promised to lower gas prices again when the war ends.

Glenn Mancher, a Merry Hill resident originally from Brooklyn, New York, drove an hour to attend Tuesday night’s rally, wearing a Trump 2028 hat.

”I’d like Trump to finish off the Iranians as quickly as possible,” Mancher said. “That would bring down energy prices.”

Bates told McClatchy exclusively that Tuesday’s rally is a “visceral reminder of Michael Whatley’s support for the Iran War that’s making gas and diesel prices skyrocket.”

“That’s on top of the unprecedented cuts to health care Whatley wanted, which are hurting people all over Eastern North Carolina just so billionaires like Elon Musk can pay lower taxes,” Bates said.

He called Tuesday’s rally “just about the worst message you could take to the Old North State right now.”

Crime

Trump appeared in North Carolina just 34 days prior and called North Carolina cities “blood-soaked killed fields“ leaning into Republican messaging that Cooper was soft on crime because of the release of more than 3,500 prisoners during the COVID-19 pandemic under a legal settlement.

Cooper and other North Carolina officials were sued by civil rights groups during the pandemic after Cooper refused to release half the state’s prison population. A judge told North Carolina officials he’d likely side with the civil rights groups and find that the prison conditions were no longer constitutional because of the virus.

To prevent the release of 18,000 inmates, state officials say, they settled and released 3,500. They included DeCarlos Brown on the list of people who were released, despite Brown having already served his full sentence prior to the settlement being agreed upon.

But in August 2025, after police said Brown killed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on the light rail in Charlotte, Republicans have used the prison release against Cooper’s Senate campaign.

On Tuesday, Trump called Cooper “a fool.”

“He’s a super liberal fool,” Trump said. “I think a fool, because a senator who cares more about shielding murderers from a cough or a virus or something that will not — for the most part these killers were young, and instead of protecting innocent citizens from bloodthirsty killers — then Roy Cooper is the Dumocrat.”

Trump signed into law the CARES Act passed by Congress that allowed the release of more than 13,000 federal prisoners into home confinement during the pandemic.

Trump never brought up the CARES Act during Tuesday’s speech but said “it’s crazy” Cooper could become senator after abiding by the court settlement.

He and Whatley also questioned Cooper’s mental acuity, a new line of attack from Republicans against Cooper after The North State Journal published a cease-and-desist demand from the Cooper campaign in response to a reporter from the outlet questioning whether he had a “neurological issue.” Cooper’s lawyers said Cooper does not, and that to publish anything to the contrary would be defamatory.

Trump turned his attention to Whatley, crediting him for the success of Trump’s 2024 campaign. At the time, Whatley was leading the Republican National Committee.

“A lot of people said it’s one of the best campaigns ever run,” Trump said. “I wanted him to be the guy, and I was right. I called it right. And I think he’ll be an even better senator.”

Trump handpicked Whatley to succeed Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville, who got into a public feud with Trump over how Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill would affect North Carolina’s Medicaid recipients. That caused Tillis to drop his reelection bid, and Trump to tap Whatley to run against Cooper.

Trump’s visit Tuesday night came one day after the vice president traveled to Hendersonville for a similar rally, and exactly two weeks before the election.

Trump said he will likely come to the state again before Nov. 3.

________

©2026 The Charlotte Observer. Visit at charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.