When President Donald Trump made his first second-term trip outside of Washington , D.C., to this Buncombe County town, he brought Michael Whatley with him to tour the region devastated by Hurricane Helene.

The plan was for Whatley, then chairman of the Republican National Committee , to travel with him to the next stop in fire-scorched California , as part of his tour of disaster zones in both states. But after their stop in Swano, where Trump was greeted warmly by residents of the hurricane-ravaged Appalachian hill country, Trump left without him.

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Not because it was planned, but because he placed Whatley, who grew up in the hills of these Blue Ridg

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