Trump took the small town in South Carolina in a show of force

[ad_1]

In a concert-like atmosphere where thousands stand for hours and dozens get sick from the July heat, Trump once again appears to dwarf the field.

Hard-working patriots like you built this country, and hard-working patriots like you will save our country, Trump told the crowd, accompanied by a dramatic musical score.

A woman drenched in sweat raised her red Gatorade to the sky and swayed to the music. A man in a wheelchair took off his shirt to brave the heat.

2024 is our last battle, Trump continued. Under our leadership, the forgotten men and women will never be forgotten.

People flocked both from surrounding counties and other states to catch a glimpse of the twice-impeached former president, whose presence in the 3-square-mile city shuttered businesses and strained municipal resources. Trump took on the city’s long-planned annual Independence Day celebration, announcing the rally two weeks ago after Trumps team convinced the city that it had help from elected Republican officials in the state. which agreed to Secret Service closures around its main business strip.

It was a sharp contrast from the event DeSantis held in South Carolina last week which was a more subdued affair where he asked questions at a North Augusta community center.

In Pickens, vendors set up days in advance, and local homeowners tried to rent $50 parking spaces in their front yards. Some attendees slept outside the entrance gate overnight. The line to enter snaked through the center of the city Saturday as the entrepreneurial-minded hawked camping chairs, bottled water and hot dogs. Rallygoers tore up cardboard boxes to make fans, and Trumps campaign frantically brought out pallets of water and Gatorade to hydrate the crowd.

Around 11 am, when the Trumps-branded plane flew overhead, the street erupted in cheers. The school choir from Greenville that recently stopped singing the national anthem performed inside the US Capitol rotunda. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.), who endorsed Trump, was repeatedly drowned out by boos.

I’m open, Tena Stark, a Pickens native who now lives in Tennessee, said of her thoughts on the Republican primary field. But my mind is full now. I feel he is the strongest person for the job.

Her husband, Bruce, said only Trump could make her travel four hours and show up at 4:45 a.m. to stand in the heat for a rally. Briefly blanking DeSantis’ name, he said he likes the candidate from Florida but thinks DeSantis needs more time to be ready to handle the job of president.

Trump could hardly have picked a more desirable location for his rally. Pickens County supported Trump more than any part of South Carolina in the 2020 election, with nearly 75 percent of the vote going to Trump. But his appearance here is a shot across the bow in a critical primary state with two home-grown contenders.

Haley, the state’s former governor, and Scott, its current junior senator, are under heavy pressure to perform well on their home turf. And unlike other early states where Trump also dominates the polls South Carolina is one where the former president has solid establishment support. He has secured the endorsements of the state’s governor, senior senator and three congressmen, something statewide and federally elected Republicans have so far been prevented from doing in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

This state chooses the presidents, said former Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who also endorsed Trump, from the stage. When we come together and show this kind of support for an individual, it speaks volumes about the nominee.

By the time Trump took the stage, the crowd was starting to thin out, with an apparent exodus of his supporters in need of shade, cold drinks and a break from the sun.

Walter Ford, who runs Main Street Pizzeria, initially tried using Facebook to presell parking spaces at his business and considered selling pizza by the slice to passersby, but eventually gave up. and decided to accept the loss by closing. Ford said he wasn’t upset, calling the rally a historic event for our small city.

It’s also a huge distraction. The Pickens police chief told the local newspaper that his officers had to study every parking lot in the city to figure out how to accommodate the large number of people. And, most importantly, Trump himself called the Pickens County Courier last week to give an exclusive interview to the weekly newspaper, calling Pickens in my place.

Those are the people I love, Trump told reporter Jason Evans. Well, break some records. Well they are on break.

Trump held his first rally of the 2024 race in Waco, Texas, in March, but Trumps rally here was his first in an early-nominating state after one scheduled for Iowa in May was canceled at the last minute due to worry about the weather.

In his speech on Saturday, which was set to be followed by the cities regularly scheduled Independence Day weekend festivities and fireworks, Trump spoke at length about his grievances over the many criminal charges pending against him. Speaking for more than an hour, Trump trashed President Joe Biden while briefly criticizing DeSantis, drawing soft boos from the crowd as he attacked DeSantis’ record on farming.

It was the latest in a series of elaborate July 4 events that Trump has participated in over the years, such as his Mount Rushmore speech in 2020 and his Salute to America event on the National Mall in 2019, which made him the first president to give an Independence Day address there in 68 years.

Nate Leupp, the former chairman of the Greenville County Republican Party, said mere curiosity about the logistics and how Pickens would pull off the event prompted some Republicans he knew to come.

This one out in a small rural town got a lot of people interested in it, Leupp said before the rally. I’ve heard of a lot of people wanting to go just for that reason.

[ad_2]