Former President Donald Trump and Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp met face-to-face for the first time Friday since the pair fell out over Trump’s claims the 2020 election was stolen from him — with one source close to the GOP nominee telling The Post the meeting was the final step in the “thaw” between the two men.
Kemp, 60, joined Trump, 78, to receive a briefing on the damage wrought upon the Peach State by Hurricane Helene.
The two hadn’t seen each other in almost four years after Trump iced Kemp out for not backing the former president’s election fraud claims, for which there is no known evidence.
The tension has been easing in recent “weeks,” the Trump official told The Post, after Kemp said recently that the country needs to send the Republican “back to the White House.”
“Brian Kemp appeared on Sean Hannity’s show … and said kind things about the president and said that he supported him. And that started the thaw.
“[Trump] called him and thanked him, and now here we are,” the source said.
The 45th president, who faces a criminal case in Georgia charging him with unlawfully attempting to overturn the state’s 2020 election results, had blasted Kemp as recently as August, calling him a “bad guy” and an “average governor.”
The most consequential effect of the breach between the two was Trump’s backing of former Sen. David Perdue’s primary challenge to Kemp in 2022, which the governor easily turned aside en route to re-election.
Georgia is one of six crucial swing states that Trump lost four years ago and must win in order to return to the White House, and an improved relationship with the popular Republican governor can only help his efforts.
On Friday, Kemp thanked Trump twice for coming to Georgia and keeping the “national focus” on the state as they recover.
Trump was similarly warm, as he thanked the governor for “welcoming us today in the aftermath of this terrible storm” and credited Kemp with “doing a fantastic job.”
“It’s great. It’s great, we work together, we’ve always worked together very well,” the 45th president added.
“The thaw feels sort of real to me, top to bottom,” the Trump official said. “Unless something happens that I don’t foresee, I think this will continue and get stronger.”
With exactly one month to go before election day, the campaign official said, Trump is making an effort to shore up support among former rivals.
“We talked to [former Republican presidential candidate] Nikki Haley, we talked to Brian Kemp. We [made amends] with [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis,” this person said. “I think the president has done a really good job of outreach and then making sure that it’s not hollow, but a real outreach.”
Kemp’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Post.
