trump: Donald Trump opens 2024 run, says he’s ‘more committed’ than ever

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Former President Donald Trump kicked off his 2024 White House bid with a stop Saturday in New Hampshire before heading to South Carolina, events in early voting states that marked his first campaign appearances since announcing his latest run. more than two months ago.

“We’re starting here as a candidate for president,” Trump told party leaders at the New Hampshire GOP’s annual meeting in Salem before an afternoon stop in Columbia to introduce his South Carolina leadership team.

“I’m angrier now and I’m more focused now than ever,” he said.

Trump and his allies hope that the events in states that have the most power to choose the nominee will offer a show of force behind the former president after a sluggish start to his campaign that left with many doubting his commitment to running again.

In recent weeks, his supporters have reached out to political operatives and elected officials to drum up support for Trump at a critical juncture when other Republicans are preparing their expected challenges.

In New Hampshire, Trump touted his campaign 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, which cost New Hampshire its primary seat, and accused Biden, a fifth-place finisher in New Hampshire in 2020, of “disgracefully trashing the beloved tradition political.” “I hope you remember that in the general election,” Trump told party members. Trump himself won the primary twice but lost the state each time to the Democrats.

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 has been Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, is expected to get her campaign underway in the coming months.

In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster, US Sen. Lindsey Graham and several members of the state’s congressional delegation plan to attend Trump’s event at the Statehouse.

Trump’s team has struggled to line up support from South Carolina lawmakers, even some who had eagerly backed him before.

Some said more than a year from primary voting is too soon to endorse or they are waiting to see who else enters the race. Others say it’s time for the party to transition Trump to a new generation of leadership.

Dave Wilson, president of the conservative Christian non-profit Palmetto Family, said some conservative voters may have concerns about Trump’s recent comments that Republicans who oppose abortion without exception have cost the party in the November elections.

“It gives pause to some people within the conservative ranks of the Republican Party as to whether or not we need the process to work itself out,” said Wilson, whose group hosted Pence for a speech on 2021.

But Gerri McDaniel, who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign, rejected the idea that voters were ready to move on from the former president.

“Some of the media keep saying he’s losing his support. No, he’s not,” she said. “It’s going to be bigger than ever because so many people are upset about what’s going on in Washington.”

The event in South Carolina, set for a government building, was in some ways unbranded for the one-time reality television star who usually favors large rallies and has tried to cultivate an outward image.

Rallies are expensive, and Trump added new financial challenges when he decided to kick off his campaign in November — earlier than many had hoped.

As a result, he is subject to strict fundraising regulations and is prevented from using his well-funded leadership political action committee to pay for such events, which can cost several million dollars.

Trump’s campaign, in its early stages, has already drawn controversy, especially when he had dinner with Holocaust-denying white nationalist Nick Fuentes and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who made a series of antisemitic comments.

Trump has also been widely mocked for selling a series of digital trading cards depicting him as a superhero, a cowboy and an astronaut, among others.

He is the subject of a series of criminal investigations, including one into the discovery of hundreds of documents with classified markings at his Florida club and whether he obstructed justice by refusing to return them, as well also state and federal scrutiny of his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.

However, Trump remains the only declared candidate in 2024, and early polls show him as the favorite to win his party’s nomination.

“The gun has been fired, and the campaign season has begun,” said Stephen Stepanek, outgoing chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party. Trump announced that Stepanek will serve as a senior adviser for his campaign in the state. (AP) RHL

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