Former President Donald Trump followed up his midday Saturday event in New Hampshire with a similarly styled campaign stop in South Carolina.
The two stops were the former president’s first public events since launching his 2024 presidential bid and marked a noticeable departure from his typical high-profile rallies. Trump’s first event, the New Hampshire GOP’s annual meeting in Salem, took place at a high school auditorium. He introduced his South Carolina leadership team at a closed-door event inside the state Capitol later that afternoon. Both gatherings were solely attended by GOP insiders, unlike his megarallies frequented by thousands, but Trump’s Saturday speeches followed his typical script.
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“The 2024 election is our one shot to save our country and we need a leader who’s ready to do that on day one. We need a fighter who can stand up to the Left, who can stand up to the swamp, stand up to the media, stand up to the deep state,” Trump told the small crowd at the state Capitol. “Am I allowed to say stand up to the RINOs? To stand up to the globalists and China and stand up for America? And that’s what we do, we stand up for America.”
The RINO quip, a reference to the term “Republican in name only,” serves as a dig to many of the political insiders Trump was speaking to. The event in itself took place at an extraordinary setting for the former president, who has built his political reputation on taking on the establishment.
Trump’s visits to both early voting states highlight his efforts to consolidate GOP support for his 2024 bid before other Republicans enter the primary race.
Trump said of his state leadership team, which includes Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), “I very much appreciate, I respect these people so much … and the state so much and God bless you. We need the blessings from God. The country is in big, big trouble. We’ll turn it around and we’ll turn it around fast.”
At another point, he said he planned to keep the state’s presidential primary as the “first in the South” and called it “a very important state.”
The former president also rejected media observations on his newfound campaign style, telling the crowd: “You know, when I announced a couple of months ago, the fake news said, ‘Why isn’t he campaigning? There must be something wrong.’ I said, ‘It’s two years before the election, give me a break.’ But we have huge rallies planned, bigger than ever before, the rallies are actually bigger than they’ve ever been because there’s a spirit like we’ve never seen before.”
Senior Trump advisers addressed the matter in a Politico interview in mid-January, telling the outlet that the 45th president had spent the two months since launching his bid opening a campaign headquarters, hiring staff, and traveling to key primary states.
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“Not all that occurs in the campaign is done in the public eye. … There’s a level of expectation that is maybe pushed by people that don’t view the campaign in maybe the most positive light,” Trump senior adviser Chris LaCivita told the outlet. “You have to husband your resources, you have to plan, and you have to be ready, and so all of that — we don’t advertise those aspects of campaign building, of campaign organizing.”
“This campaign will be about the future. This campaign will be about issues,” Trump said to cheers from those in the audience. “Joe Biden has put America on the fast track to ruin and destruction, and we will ensure that he does not receive four more years.”
