Donald Trump is back in New Hampshire, focused on the Biden rematch

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By MICHELLE L. PRICE and JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press

MANCHESTER, NH – Former President Donald Trump turned his attention to Thursday’s general election, using his first campaign appearance since President Joe Biden launched his own re-election bid to tout his poll numbers and suggest no that he has to debate his Republican rivals. .

Trump’s appearance in New Hampshire marked his first return to an early voting state since his legal troubles mounted. He spoke on the same day that his former vice president, Mike Pence, testified before a federal grand jury investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to subvert the 2020 election. Meanwhile, the writer that E. Jean Carroll testified Thursday that she was raped by Trump in the 1990s, a charge she denies.

“We are a country in serious decline, a country that has lost its way,” Trump said at a downtown Manchester hotel, a smaller venue than his usual, large-scale rally. “We are led by a hopeless man, but we will win in 2024 and make America great again. We can do it. It’s not too late.”

In a nod to his 2016 career, Trump said he would drop the “crooked” nickname he used to refer to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and apply it to Biden instead. He vowed to take back the White House and “fix our unfinished business” in a potential 2024 rematch with the current president.

Former US President Donald Trump, center, at a campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire, US, on Thursday, April 27, 2023. Trump is seeking to become the first former president since Grover Cleveland to be elected to a second, non-consecutive term in office . Photographer: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg

Biting nicknames have been a mainstay of Trump’s campaigns, delighting his supporters and helping to define his rivals including “Crooked Hillary” Clinton, “Little Marco” Rubio and “Low-energy Jeb” Bush .

Trump’s appearance in New Hampshire came two days after Biden began his own long-awaited re-election campaign, presenting himself as he did in 2020 as an advocate against Trump and his political candidacy. Make America Great Again. Biden’s campaign launch video included snapshots of Trump and warned about “MAGA extremists” working to destroy freedoms including voting rights and abortion rights.

Trump is considered a front-runner for the GOP nomination, though more Republicans are expected to enter the race soon, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Trump campaign this week began airing its first television ad, attacking DeSantis. In the ad, Trump takes credit for DeSantis’ political rise and shows the governor passing himself off as the former president, along with clips from a 2018 gubernatorial campaign ad in which he uses some of DeSantis’ catchphrases. Trump like “Build the wall” and “You’re fired.”

Trump, who has been mulling over skipping the primary debates, pointed Thursday to his large lead in the polls and asked, “Why would you do that?”

Two weeks ago, Trump appeared with several other announced and potential presidential candidates at the National Rifle Association convention in Indianapolis. Last weekend, he spoke via video to a gathering of evangelicals in Iowa marking the unofficial start of the state’s 2024 caucus campaign.

“It doesn’t feel good to have Republicans who are so conservative and so good at fighting each other,” said Kathy Holmes, a 69-year-old retired teacher from Chichester, New Hampshire. Holmes, who has said she plans to vote for Trump in the state’s leadoff primary, wore homemade buttons with Trump’s face with her fuzzy blonde hair stuck to her Manchester event on Thursday.

Holmes said he would like to see DeSantis run for president in 2028, but for now, he is needed as governor of Florida.

Even as the campaign season continues, Trump’s legal concerns haven’t subsided.

Earlier this month, he pleaded not guilty in New York to a 34-count felony indictment charging him with a scheme to bury allegations of extramarital affairs that emerged during his first White House campaign.

A civil rape case against him went to trial in Manhattan this week. A former magazine columnist testified Wednesday that she was raped by Trump in the dressing room of a luxury department store in 1996. Trump has called the claim fiction and has not attended the trial, though his lawyers have said he may decide to testify.

On Monday, an Atlanta prosecutor investigating whether Trump and his allies illegally interfered in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia said he expects to announce charging decisions in the case this summer. He asked that law enforcement officials prepare security measures in case of a strong public reaction.

Trump also faces an ongoing investigation from the US Department of Justice over top secret documents found at his Florida estate and his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump has dismissed all accusations of wrongdoing and insisted the investigations were politically motivated.

New Hampshire is a political swing state, even though voters in the state rejected Trump in the 2016 and 2020 general elections. However, it was the first state Trump won in the 2016 Republican presidential primary contest, propelling him to the GOP dominance he has maintained to this day.

The former president made another visit to New Hampshire earlier this year, stopping in Salem as part of his first appearance in his latest White House campaign.

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