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President Donald Trump criticized North Carolina in Gastonia Wednesday evening as he called its cities “blood-soaked killing fields.”
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Trump spent Wednesday evening at Gastonia Municipal Airport in Gaston County stumping for U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley in the final stretch of his campaign. He spoke for about an hour on topics including crime, the economy, maintaining control of Congress and the fans that follow him across the country.
North Carolina ranks 31 out of the 50 states for violent crimes, with No. 1 being the best and 50 being the worst, according to U.S. News & World Report. The FBI keeps a list of statistics on each state but acknowledges that various factors play a role in crime rates and chooses not to compare states.
But Trump said North Carolina was one of the worst.
“Nobody use to think of North Carolina as a dangerous state,” Trump said. “It was like North Carolina, it was beautiful, it was apple pie. Right? And now it’s the worst in the whole nation, and it all started with Cooper and you have a lousy governor right now too.”
And he contradicted what his attorney general, Todd Blanche, said before he took the stage.
“North Carolina is ground zero for exactly what is working,” Blanche said. “Communities are safer, families are stronger, and side by side with your local county sheriffs, police officers and state partners, people are able to go to bed at night and feel safer than they did just two years ago.”
Blanche credited Trump and Vice President JD Vance for that.
But Trump painted a different vision of North Carolina as he stumped for U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, a Republican from Gastonia.
Both Trump and Whatley spent the evening criticizing Cooper for soft-on-crime policies.
Criticism often focused on the death of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska. Republicans continue trying to tie Zarutska’s death to a 2021 court settlement that released 3,500 inmates from prison during the pandemic.
Cooper refused to sign an executive order to release 18,000 inmates, so civil rights groups sued the state and a judge told the Cooper administration he would likely side with the plaintiffs that the prison conditions were no longer acceptable, and the prisoners needed to be released.
State officials settled and released 3,500. The name of the man, accused of killing Zarutska, DeCarlos Brown, appeared on the list, despite having served his full sentence for armed robbery prior to the settlement agreement being reached.
That hasn’t stopped Republican from using it against Cooper.
And Trump went into graphic details about her death.
“She didn’t know that sitting behind her on the train was a deranged lunatic,” Trump said. “A dangerous monster with 14-prior arrests for violent crimes. Set his bloodthirsty eyes on her right from the beginning.”
Brown has a history of mental health problems and had been arrested for misuse of the 911 system. He was out of jail on bail at the time of Zarutska’s death.
Whatley, who appeared prior to Trump’s speech and later with Trump on stage, also blamed his opponent for Zarutska’s death.
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“That beautiful young lady should be alive today,” Whatley said. “That monster should have never been on the streets. That monster should have never been on that light rail car. And her blood is on Roy Cooper’s hands.”
The Cooper campaign called it “shameful” that Whatley used “heinous crimes to try and deceive North Carolinians.”
Trump also addressed the economy, something he promised in his 2024 campaign to improve.
He told the crowd he “took care of the egg crisis.”
And he had little sympathy that the war in Iran has driven up gas prices to an average of $4.12 per gallon for regular unleaded in North Carolina, with effects across other industries.
“It’s a very inexpensive price to pay for what we’ve done,” Trump said.
Trump used the rally to stump for not only Whatley, but 1st Congressional District candidate Laurie Buckhout and 11th Congressional District candidate Jennifer Balkcom.
Trump also celebrated that he won North Carolina six times, including the primaries and told the crowd to pretend he’s on the ballot again.
“A vote for Roy Cooper is a vote to give control of the U.S. Senate because that’s ultimately,” Trump said before starting again. “Forget about him; he’s not a leader or anything. But he’s going to vote, and we can’t lose that vote. It’s too close. He’ll turn around everything.”
North Carolina could be the difference between whether Republicans or Democrats control the Senate in the next session of Congress. Republicans currently have control with 53 seats, to Democrats 45. There are also two independents who usually caucus with the Democrats.
And Cooper has won every poll against Whatley since the two men entered the race in July 2025. Sometimes Cooper leads by double digits.
During his rally, Trump was met with typical cheers, and jeers when he talked about his political enemies, including Cooper. Some voices rose above the crowd shouting expletives and Cooper’s name.
Those in the crowd held American flags, wore Make American Great Again hats and waved signs that went along with the themes of Trump speech.
Wednesday marked Trump’s first visit to the state since February.
This story was originally published September 16, 2026 at 10:22 PM with the headline “Trump claims NC crime among worst in country. His attorney general says otherwise.”
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