President Trump swung through North Carolina to boost Michael Whatley’s U.S. Senate bid, leaning on the administration’s record on crime and folding his pledge to cut $5,000 “Trump dividend” checks for every American into the high‑stakes race.
Mr. Trump also hinted that the Iran war, which has been driving up gas prices and rattling voters’ nerves about the economy, might conclude after the election.
The visit underscored the pressure on Mr. Whatley. He has been trailing former Gov. Roy Cooper — one of Democrats’ top recruits — in most public polls.
Mr. Cooper’s steady lead has fueled the sense inside GOP circles that the clock is ticking for Mr. Whatley to tighten the race and convince the president’s team to direct more resources into the contest.
Mr. Trump praised Mr. Whatley’s tenure as chairman of the Republican National Committee, crediting him with helping drive strong Republican showings in recent elections.
Those victories allowed the president to advance key parts of his Make America Great Again agenda, including tax cuts, an illegal-immigration crackdown and tough‑on‑crime policies.
“He’s a very effective man,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Whatley in Gastonia. “He is a real ball breaker, let me tell you. But he’s great.”
He also attacked Mr. Cooper, saying that Republican voters are “going to defeat the murderer- and criminal-protector. He’s a murderer-protector.”
Mr. Trump cast the Democrat as responsible for rising crime in the state, and for criticizing his response to Hurricane Helene in 2024.
He urged supporters to treat the race as a proxy battle for his own agenda, telling them that “you got to pretend I’m on the ballot.”
At one point, he added: “Some of you like me better than you like the party.”
The stakes of the race extend beyond North Carolina.
Democrats likely need to flip the seat — being vacated by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis - if they want any chance of netting the four seats required to retake the chamber. And they are trying to do it in a state Mr. Trump has won three straight presidential races.
Mr. Whatley, for his part, worked to draw a bright line between himself and Mr. Cooper, saying the Democrat is soft on crime and too cozy with his party’s far-left flank.
He pinned high gas and grocery prices on Biden-era policies that he says Mr. Cooper would bring back, warning that the American “dream” is under attack from a “radical left” trying to “bring socialism back” and put “Christians … under assault.”
The Republican also sharpened his economic argument.
“If [Mr. Cooper] gets elected to the Senate, he will vote every single day to bring back Joe Biden’s inflationary policies that made gas prices and grocery prices and housing prices go through the roof,” Mr. Whatley said.
Mr. Cooper, meanwhile, has built his campaign around a “Make Stuff Cost Less” message, arguing that Mr. Trump and Republican policies — tariffs and the Iran war among them — are what is actually squeezing working-class families on food, gas and health care.
Attorney General Todd Blanche also traveled to North Carolina. He said Mr. Trump delivered on his promise to make America safer by reducing violent crime, slashing illegal border crossings and deporting illegal immigrants. “People are able to go to bed tonight and feel a lot safer than they did two years ago,” Mr. Blanche said, vowing the administration will always back law enforcement and give them the respect they deserve.
Mr. Trump tied his proposed dividend directly to the midterms, telling the crowd Republicans need to hold both chambers to make it happen.
“If the Republicans win the House and Senate, I will issue what we will all call from now on the Trump dividend to every adult in America — will get $5,000,” he said.
On Iran, he was cagey about timing but confident about the outcome.
“You watch what’s going to happen in Iran. It’s going to be a really good conclusion,” he said. “I say it’s going to be a little bit after the election, but maybe not. Maybe it’s before the election.”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Whatley also once again tried to tie Mr. Cooper to the killing last year of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee fatally stabbed aboard a Charlotte light-rail train in 2025, pointing to a 2020 executive order creating a task force on racial equity in criminal justice.
Suspect Decarlos Brown Jr., a Black man with a history of schizophrenia, had at least 14 arrests going back to 2007 involving felonies and misdemeanors, though the direct link between him and the governor’s order remains unclear.
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