VALDOSTA, Ga. – Former President Donald Trump visited South Georgia on Monday to witness first-hand the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. During his visit, Trump offered his condolences to those affected by the storm and announced that he had spoken with technology billionaire Elon Musk about providing Starlink satellite services to areas cut off from communications.

“Elon will always get through it. I know that,” Trump said. “We’re working on linking them together because they don’t have communication. Our hearts are with you, and we will stay with you for as long as you need.”

Trump also launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for hurricane victims. The campaign has already raised more than $1 million dollars and all donations are expected to go to those affected by the devastation. Trump said he brought supplies, including fuel, that will be distributed by the Christian aid group Samaritan’s Purse.

However, Trump’s visit was not without controversy. The former president criticized the federal response to the hurricane and falsely claimed that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp had had difficulty reaching President Joe Biden. “He’s having trouble getting the president on the phone,” Trump said. The White House quickly walked back that claim, noting that Biden had spoken with Kemp on Sunday.

“The president asked him what Georgia needed,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “If the governor wants to speak to the president again, the president will obviously take his call.”

Biden responded to Trump’s comments, accusing him of lying about the federal response. “He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Biden said. “I don’t care what he says about me, but I do care what he communicates to those in need. We do everything possible.

Governor Kemp, who has been at odds with Trump in the past, expressed his appreciation for the federal assistance. “We’ve had FEMA embedded with us since a day or two before the storm hit,” Kemp said. “The president called me yesterday, and I appreciate that.”

Georgia officials, including U.S. Rep. Rick Allen and state Rep. Dexter Sharper, emphasized that hurricane relief efforts would be bipartisan. “This is not a Democratic or Republican issue,” Allen said. Sharper echoed these sentiments, saying, “It’s non-political with us. We are working together to help Georgia get the resources we need to get back to normal.”

President Biden on Wednesday will tour damage in North Carolina, where the storm destroyed roads and bridges and knocked out power, leaving affected areas isolated from the rest of the country.

RELATED:

More than 40 trillion gallons of rain has drenched the southeastern United States this past week as a result of Hurricane Helene and a mundane rainstorm that sloshed before it — an unprecedented amount of water that has baffled experts.

That’s enough to fill the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium 51,000 times, or Lake Tahoe just once. If it were concentrated only on the state of North Carolina, that much water would be 3.5 feet deep (more than 1 meter). It’s enough to fill more than 60 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.

“That’s an astronomical amount of precipitation,” said Ed Clark, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “I’ve never seen anything so geographically vast and the sheer amount of water that fell from the sky in my 25 years with the weather service.”