AMAC Exclusive – By Aaron Flanigan
In a two-stop campaign blitz on Saturday, former President Donald Trump visited New Hampshire and South Carolina – two critical early voting states. Bolstered by strong primary polls, in which he is shown to have double-digit leads over would-be GOP contenders, Trump used the two appearances to lambast the failures of the Biden administration and lay out some of the main components of his policy platform.
During his visit to New Hampshire, Trump announced outgoing New Hampshire GOP Chair Stephen Stepanek as his Senior Advisor in the Granite State, which has long been home to the first primary in the nation. Earlier this year, however, Democrats controversially pushed the New Hampshire primary further back in the calendar for their party’s primaries. Trump criticized that decision in his remarks, voicing his support of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation tradition: “I’ve been your defender, and I’ve refused to let any Republican… even think about taking that cherished status away,” he said. “Joe Biden lost it badly, and it was a very tough time. He had a humiliating fifth place defeat, and now he’s taking a revenge on the voters of your state by cruelly and disgracefully trashing this beloved political tradition.”
Later in the speech, Trump outlined plans to crack down on illegal immigration, halt the flow of deadly drugs coming across the southern border, cut federal funding for schools that promote Critical Race Theory, restore American energy independence, end trade reliance on China, and root out corruption in Washington. He also signaled he would return to the Granite State several times in the months ahead for his signature campaign rallies. “I’m more angry now and I’m more committed now than I ever was,” Trump told the New Hampshire crowd—a clear sign of his energy and enthusiasm as the long-awaited presidential primary season approaches.
Trump then headed south to the Palmetto State, another early primary battleground. He announced his South Carolina leadership team, which includes Governor Henry McMaster, Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. “This campaign will be about the future. This campaign will be about issues. 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,” Trump said at the South Carolina statehouse in Columbia.
“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,” he said, noting he is the best positioned Republican leader to “stand up to the left… stand up to the swamp, stand up to the media, stand up to the deep state… stand up to the globalists and China, and stand up for America.” Trump continued: “There’s only one president who has ever challenged the entire establishment in Washington, and with your vote next year, we will do it again.”
The former president proceeded to take swipes at Joe Biden, who Trump said “has brought us to the brink of World War III,” as well as lay out a handful of policy positions. The 45th president said he would make it his “personal mission” to help every South Carolina family attain a middle-class lifestyle. To beat inflation, Trump said, “we will stop the government’s spending insanity” and “rebuild the greatest economy in the history of the world… I did it before, and I’ll do it again, and it won’t even be difficult.”
On cultural issues, Trump promised to “stop the left-wing radical racists and perverts who are trying to indoctrinate our youth, and we’re going to get their Marxist hands off of our children,” further pledging to “defeat the cult of gender ideology and reaffirm that God created two genders: men and women. We’re not going to allow men to play women’s sports.”
Trump also took aim at what he called the “weaponization” of the Biden Justice Department, which he pledged to stop should he regain power of the White House next November.
Prior to Trump’s remarks, Congressman Russell Fry told the Columbia crowd that “Never before in the history of the South Carolina primary has a presidential candidate received this much support this early in the day”—demonstrating the extraordinary level of support behind the former president more than a year before the state’s primary.
As primary season continues to kick into gear, it has become clear that the momentum is on Trump’s side—and he still retains his status as the party’s leader. Therefore, as potential challengers contemplate whether or not to take on Trump, it is becoming increasingly likely that they will be fighting an uphill battle.
Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.
