Trump misstates Cooper’s tax stance and omits Helene aid in Senate pitch

Trump’s Truth Social message on 3 November 2026 urged voters to elect Republican Michael Whatley to the US Senate instead of Cooper, North Carolina’s former Democratic governor. It repeated a near-identical post from the previous day, according to the Trump’s Truth archive. The candidates are seeking the seat being vacated by retiring Republican senator Thom Tillis.

Trump praised Whatley for having “always delivered” for the state, “especially after the terrible floods”, where he claimed the Biden administration “did nothing”. He also said Cooper opposed tax relief on tips, overtime and Social Security, and predicted all three would be “terminated” if Cooper and the Democrats gained power.

The response to Helene

The post does not name a storm. Hurricane Helene is directly relevant: Trump chose Whatley to lead a recovery team at a January 2025 briefing on the storm, which had caused devastating flooding in western North Carolina the previous year. Cooper was governor when it hit.

Biden had approved a major disaster declaration requested by Cooper. On 9 October 2024, North Carolina’s public safety department reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had paid more than $60m in individual assistance to survivors in the west of the state. About 2,600 people were in hotels through a FEMA shelter programme, and federal partners had delivered approximately 7.7 million meals.

At the 2025 briefing, Trump criticised FEMA but referred to people he said had been removed from its temporary housing. If Helene was the flooding he meant, his claim that the Biden administration did nothing is false.

The response also had documented shortcomings. A federal inspector found that the Small Business Administration processed disaster-loan applications promptly after Helene, but a 68-day funding lapse prevented it from paying out many loans and outreach in the Carolinas was insufficient.

In September 2026, WRAL reported that the federal government under both Biden and Trump had paid roughly 16% of the disaster’s total cost, according to state figures, and that thousands of homes still needed repair or rebuilding. The station also reported that Trump reduced the federal reimbursement rate for local governments’ recovery work after taking office. Governor Josh Stein said the decision could shift up to $200m in costs to state taxpayers.

Whatley told WRAL in September that he had held more than 60 meetings and made hundreds of calls about recovery. The Asheville Citizen Times found six messages from him and five calls totalling 38 minutes with state recovery adviser Sharon Decker over roughly a year to June 2026. Separate searches involving selected FEMA officials, state emergency management and 12 county governments found no records of direct communication. The newspaper cautioned that its searches could not capture every contact, including in-person discussions or messages from unidentified accounts.