By Rachel McDaniel
news@pikecountygeorgia.com
It was a historic day as Pike had its first presidential visit in nearly 100 years. In a pivotal time of his 2024 presidential campaign, former President Donald Trump arrived in Zebulon for the Believers and Ballots Faith Town Hall on Oct. 23. Georgia’s Lt. Gov. Burt Jones welcomed Trump to Pike.
“What a beautiful place,” said Trump. “A lot of people – all along the highways as we’re driving up – and there’s a lot of love. We’re going to have a big election Nov. 5 and probably many of you … Who’s already voted? [cheers]. It’s going to be a big one. I think it’s the most important election in the history of our country. And we don’t say that lightly but it’s a big one.”
Trump addressed many issues during his Town Hall, including border control, inflation and energy dependence, foreign policy, the impacts of Hurricane Helene and the importance of voting.
ECONOMY
Several citizens asked questions of Trump, including Estefany Frost of El Mariachi in Zebulon. She said her mother and family have run the restaurant in Zebulon for nearly 20 years. She said the business has been negatively affected by the economy over the past four years. She asked, “How can you help these small town businesses become great and successful?”
Trump said during his years in office, energy costs were low with fuel at only $1.84 a gallon.
“Everything is double, triple, quadruple. Interest rates were at 2% and now they’re at 10% and you can’t get the money. We are going to drill, baby, drill and that’s going to bring everything down. It’s such a big component of the fabric of our lives economically, oil and gas. The pledge I’m making now is we are going to bring energy down by 50% within 12 months from Jan. 20.”
“That is going to bring everything else down. The damage is done and we’ve got to get the prices down. We are also going to get the interest rates down. We have more liquid gold than any other nation in the world. We are going to get your energy cost down and you are going to make so much money.”
Trump said Detroit is doing poorly because other countries are taking over car production. He said he is working on offering interest deductions when people go to purchase a vehicle but only if the car is built in the United States.
BORDER CONTROL
Trump said if he is elected the first order in the first hour of the first day will be to shut down the border. He said during his term, the border was secure but now it is 10-15 times worse than it was in 2016.
“If you take a look at what they’ve done with our border, it’s so bad. I think it’s the single biggest problem we have. We talk about inflation and the economy and it’s horrible and the biggest problem to me is the border where they allow murderers into our country, they allow prisoners into our country. They empty out their prisons from all over the world and to me it’s the biggest problem we have. And we are going to do something to stop it very quickly.”
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
Trump mentioned a graphic on border control which was displayed on the screen in Christ Chapel and it was the same one that was displayed the day of the assassination attempt against him.
“I love that chart. I love it. They never know when I’m going to introduce it and usually I don’t but I did that one day and I turned to the right to look and I’m glad I turned. Otherwise I wouldn’t be with you right now.But If you look at the arrow on the bottom, that was the day I left office and that was the lowest day we’ve had in terms of illegals coming into our country and that included drugs and human trafficking, mostly of women by the way. What they’ve done to our country is just indescribeable.”
HURRICANE HELENE
Lt. Gov. Jones said when Hurricane Helene hit southeast Georgia, Trump was the first person on the ground after the storms. He said he called Jason Aldean and talked about getting together to do a Hurricane relief fund and then he called Trump.
“At 7:30 in the morning, one ring, he picks up the phone,” said Jones. “I told him Jason Aldean and I are going to do something this Saturday night, would you like to be a part. Without hesitation, he said ‘Absolutely.’ They started a gofundme page on Tuesday, by Saturday of that same week, because of him, we had raised $7 million.”
Trump said the government’s response to Hurricane Helene was not what it should have been.
“Georgia got hit so hard and it worked well over here from the standpoint of people getting together and helping. I was in North Carolina yesterday, three different stops. It is not even believable but FEMA – meaning the White House – did not do their job. And they spent a lot of their money on other things – on illegal migrants coming in, almost a billion dollars, and there was no money so now they are going to have to have a special session in Congress to try to get money. But you know who did help us though? Elon Musk, he helped us.”
Trump said Elon Musk’s donation of StarLink access in areas devastated by the hurricane was crucial. He said he was on the phone with Elon Musk about providing access when the person from North Carolina who had requested it messaged him to thank him. He said he asked Elon how he did that and he replied he “had his ways.”
“They had no communication, people were dying. He saved a lot of lives,” said Trump. “He got StarLink to them right away and it made a big difference. Also, they got it into Georgia.”
FOREIGN POLICY
Trump said he supports Israel and was instrumental in the Abraham Accords and getting the Embassy built in Jerusalem. He said he believes the way the current administration pulled the military out of Afghanistan first instead of last was embarrassing and he thinks it was why Putin attacked the Ukraine. He said he hopes to have peace in the Middle East and peace with Russia.
“We are going to work with all nations. We are not going to have World War III. We are closer to World War III than we have been ever maybe, ever. And that will be a war like no other because of the power of the weaponry, nuclear weapons. The power is indescribable and you don’t even want to think about it and it’s mentioned all the time. You know I never mention nuclear. We rebuilt our military. Frankly, we are going to take care of everything, we are going to straighten out the world a little bit.”
Trump addressed members of the Christian faith, noting that they don’t vote in large numbers and if they did, Republicans would never lose an election.
INVESTIGATIONS
“I’ve been investigated more than any human being I suspect in the history of this country. More than Alphonse Capone. Did anyone ever hear of Alphonse? Al Capone was the gangster of all gangsters. Scarface, commonly known as. I’ve been investigated more than Scarface. It makes you stronger and the fact that I had such backing from the public. These scoundrels came after me at a level you wouldn’t believe. It’s called elections interference. It’s called the weaponization of the FBI, the DOJ, they were all coming. And we are going to get things turned around in this country. They don’t do that except in third world countries. No one even thought that was possible. I just want to thank you for your support because it actually makes me more popular.”
FAITH
“When you have faith, when you believe in God, it’s a big advantage over people that don’t have that,” he said.
The final question of the Town Hall event came from a young citizen in the crowd outside. Trump decided to answer his question in person and walked outside to the cheering crowd, greeting audience members along the way to the exit.
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