Trump kicks off 2024 run by saying he’s ‘more angry now’
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Former President Donald Trump kicked off his 2024 White House bid with stops Saturday in New Hampshire and South Carolina, events in early-voting states marking the first campaign appearances since announcing his latest run in November.
“Together we will complete the unfinished business of making America great again,” Trump said at an evening event in Columbia to introduce his South Carolina leadership team.
Trump and his allies hope the events in states with enormous power in selecting the nominee will offer a show of force behind the former president after a sluggish start to his campaign.
“They said, ‘He’s not doing rallies, he’s not campaigning. Maybe he’s lost that step,’” Trump said at the New Hampshire GOP’s annual meeting in Salem, his first event.
But, he told the audience of party leaders, “I’m more angry now and I’m more committed now than I ever was.” In South Carolina, he further dismissed the speculation by saying that “we have huge rallies planned, bigger than ever before.”
Trump’s backers have been reaching out to political operatives and elected officials to secure support for the former president at a critical point when other Republicans are preparing their own expected challenges.
In New Hampshire, Trump promoted his agenda, including immigration and crime, and said his policies would be the opposite of President Joe Biden’s. He cited the Democrats’ move to change the election calendar, costing New Hampshire its leadoff primary spot, and accused Biden, a fifth-place finisher in the state in 2020, of “disgracefully trashing this beloved political tradition.”
Later in South Carolina, Trump said he planned to keep the state’s presidential primary as the “first in the South” and called it “a very important state.” In his speech, he hurtled from criticism of Biden and Democrats to disparaging comments about transgender people, mockery of people promoting the use of electric stoves and electric cars, and reminiscing about efforts while serving as president to increase oil production, strike trade deals and crack down on migration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
While Trump remains the only declared 2024 presidential candidate, potential challengers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, are expected to get their campaigns underway in the coming months.
In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and members of the state’s congressional delegation attended Trump’s event at the Statehouse.
Trump’s team has struggled to line up support from South Carolina lawmakers, even some who backed him before. Some have said that more than a year out from primary balloting is too early to make endorsements or that they’re waiting to see who else enters the race. Others have said it is time for the party to move past Trump to a new generation of leadership.
Dave Wilson, president of conservative Christian nonprofit Palmetto Family, said some conservative voters may have concerns about Trump’s recent comments that Republicans who opposed abortion without exceptions had cost the party in the midterms.
“It gives pause to some folks within the conservative ranks of the Republican Party as to whether or not we need the process to work itself out,” Wilson said.