ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump changes his stance on the Republican governor of Georgia after he launched a series of scathing attacks at a rally several weeks ago.

In a social media post, Trump thanked Governor Brian Kemp “for all your help and support in Georgia, where a victory is so important for the success of our party and, more importantly, our country.”

“I look forward to working with you, your team, and all my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote.

Trump’s words marked a major departure from his own statements at a meeting earlier this monthwhere Trump took aim at the governor in an Atlanta arena just blocks from the Georgia Capitol, blaming him for his narrow defeat in the state in 2020.

In a roughly 10-minute tirade on August 3, Trump slammed Kemp for not pandering to his false theories about election fraud. He also faulted the governor for failing to stop a local district attorney prosecute him and others for their efforts to undo the results.

“He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he’s a very average governor,” Trump said at the time. “Little Brian, little Brian Kemp. Bad guy.”

Trump’s statement Thursday came moments after Kemp appeared on Fox News and told host Sean Hannity that he continues to support Trump and will help him win Georgia’s 16 electoral votes.

“We need to send Donald Trump back to the White House,” Kemp said.

That could mean Kemp is using his own well-funded political organization to turn out Republican voters across the state, even as some GOP operatives still fear that Trump’s own field brigade could be ineffective. So far, Kemp has said his organization is only working in a handful of state legislative districts.

Kemp’s endorsement could also be a useful signal to moderate and conservative voters who have supported Kemp, but doubts about Trump.

Both could be crucial as Democratic candidates and Vice President Kamala Harris campaign has put Georgia back on track for another extremely close election.

Trump calls Fox News after Harris’ comments Speech at the Democratic National Conventionwas asked if he is making a specific effort to make amends with Kemp.

“Well, I just saw Brian with a very good man — have you ever heard of a man named Sean Hannity? And he was interviewed by Sean Hannity and he was very nice and he said he wants Trump to win and he’s going to work with me 100 percent and I think we’re going to have a very good relationship with Brian Kemp,” Trump said.

A spokesperson for Kemp declined to comment.

Republican vice presidential candidate and senator from Ohio. JD Vancewho campaigned Thursday in the southern Georgia city of Valdosta, said he had spoken to Kemp “very briefly” earlier.

“I’ve read the headlines,” Vance told reporters. “Brian Kemp and Donald Trump have had some disagreements. I guarantee you 100 percent that Brian Kemp is behind this ticket.”

Kemp had backed down when Trump named his wife after Marty Kemp told an interviewer that Trump had not earned her vote. On X, Kemp told Trump to “leave my family out of this” and urged him to stop “making petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans or dwelling on the past.”

But Kemp continued to support the Republican Party and continued to attack Harris.

“We’ve got to win from the top of the ticket down,” Kemp said Thursday on Fox. “I’ve said consistently for a long time, we can’t afford four more years of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And I think Kamala Harris and Tim Walz would be even worse.”

That’s partly because it’s clear that Kemp, who has raised his national profile as vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association, is still eyeing political options, including a 2026 Senate run against Democrat Jon Ossoff or perhaps even his own presidential bid in 2028. Abandoning Trump could complicate Kemp’s Senate run and destroy his chance to become the nominee of what is now solidly Trump’s Republican Party.

But Kemp is also unwilling to humiliate himself for Trump. The two have a long history of disagreements that date back to when Kemp Kelly Loeffler to the U.S. Senate in 2019 over Trump’s preferred choice of then-Rep. Doug Collins. It continued Trump’s criticism of Kemp’s handling of the pandemic. Trump has repeatedly argued that Kemp owed his first election as governor in 2018 to Trump’s support during the Republican primary, even though Kemp was already on the rise.

But the relationship soured when Kemp repeatedly rejected Trump’s urgings to intervene after Democrat Joe Biden narrowly won the 2020 Georgia election. Kemp, for example, rejected Trump’s request that Kemp calls Georgia lawmakers into a special session to replace Biden’s electors with those who pledged to Trump.

Trump retaliated by recruiting former U.S. Senator David Perdue to try to derail Kemp’s reelection bid in the 2022 GOP primaries. But Kemp ashamed perdueand Trump by extension, who won nearly 75% of the vote in the primaries. After on the way to defeat Democrat Stacey Abrams by a comfortable margin, Kemp has spent the last two years Push Republicans and Trump to stop litigating their grievances over the 2020 election and instead look ahead by appealing to voters on economic issues.

Some Republicans tried to settle the dispute.

“Kemp made it very clear that he was 100 percent behind Trump,” said Georgia Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon, a former senator who has tried to bridge the gap between Kemp and Trump.

Loeffler, who remains a major Republican donor and hosted a fundraiser for Trump in April, was among those who issued a celebratory statement on Thursday.

“No one fights harder for America than Donald Trump,” Loeffler wrote on X. “No one works harder for Georgia than Brian Kemp. And there is nothing more unifying than saving this country from the threat of Kamala’s communist takeover. Proud to join them in the fight to Make America Great Again!”

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Colvin reported from New York.