Former President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he was “sad” that his rallies, one of the staples of his campaign, were coming to an end. 

Mr. Trump’s sentimental remarks came during a stop in Greensboro, North Carolina, his second rally in the battleground state of the day and his third total on Saturday. In the front row of the rally were a group of women that he calls the “front row Joes,” who he said have been to hundreds of rallies during this cycle. 

Seeing them triggered the reflective moment, where Mr. Trump recalled first jumping into presidential politics in 2016. 

“I was talking to some of the people, it’s sort of, you know, in a way, it’s sad, in a way, it’s beautiful,” Mr. Trump said. “I was talking to them, and I said, you know, this is coming to an end. These rallies are coming to an end. We’ve been doing them, think of it, for like, nine years.”

“I was given a 3% chance of beating crooked Hillary [Clinton], and I understand that because, you know, she was a secretary of state, and she was married to the President of the United States, and she was a smart, and is a smart, woman,” he continued. “She lies like hell, but not as bad as Kamala.”

The former president will spend every day until election day in North Carolina, a battleground state where he holds a slim lead against Ms. Harris, and one that he won in 2016 and 2020. 

Indeed, the last Democrat to win in North Carolina was former President Barack Obama in 2008. Before that, a Republican has won the state in each presidential election cycle since 1980. 

Mr. Trump is again hoping to win the state and its 16 electoral votes, a boost of one electoral vote from 2020. The state became a political focal point following Hurricane Helene, and since the storm made landfall, Mr. Trump has visited or rallied in North Carolina nearly 10 times. 

“We’re winning by a lot, but, you know, you can lose by a little, you know when you’re winning by a lot you can still lose by a little, and we can’t take a chance of losing the great state of North Carolina,” Mr. Trump said. 

The Biden-Harris administration’s response to Helene was not spared, despite Mr. Trump’s sentimental mood. 

He again repeated false claims that disaster funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency was being diverted to support illegal migrants rather than for disaster recovery in the state. 

The agency has dedicated disaster relief money that is appropriated by Congress that cannot be used for other purposes. But, lawmakers in 2022 did task the agency with spreading money from Customs and Border Protection to help communities that received influxes of migrants.

Mr. Trump also hit the Biden administration over reports that FEMA did not answer hundreds of thousands of calls from people seeking disaster aid. The agency has so far disbursed $1.2 billion in emergency aid, but has struggled with staffing levels and back-to-back hurricanes. 

“FEMA was not even answering their calls,” Mr. Trump said. “They had no money. They couldn’t pay their damn phone bill, because all the money’s gone to the migrants, the migrants coming in from various and sundry prisons and mental institutions.”