Donald Trump’s announcement that he is running for President of the United States in 2024 was not a prank, or a ploy to avoid prosecution, as some have speculated. He’s hitting the road and laying the groundwork necessary for a serious bid to retake the White House.
Nearly three months after announcing his campaign, the former president kicked off his first campaign in his adopted home state of Florida on Saturday.
In New Hampshire, he addressed a Republican Party meeting and announced that the outgoing state party chairman would be a senior adviser to his campaign. And at the state capital in Columbia, South Carolina, he won the endorsement of the state’s governor, Henry McMaster, and Senator Lindsey Graham.
The latter, a Trump confidant who expressed some dismay after the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots, is now back in full force.
“How many times have you heard, ‘We like Trump’s policies, but we want a new one?’ Mr. Graham asked the crowd. “Without Donald Trump, there are no Trump policies. I was there.”
Mr Trump again denied his 2020 defeat and told supporters that he – unlike any potential Republican alternative – would be the most effective candidate in 2024.
“To change the whole system, you need a president who can handle the whole system and a president who can win,” he said from the state capitol’s main hall.
In both stops, Mr. Trump touted his record of success during his presidency and attacked President Joe Biden’s record on crime, immigration and the economy.
Across the street, Todd Gerhardt, a Republican district executive committee member from nearby Charleston, sold honey in Trump-shaped plastic bottles.
Mr. Gerhardt was an early supporter of Mr. Trump’s first presidential campaign, organizing a rally for him in 2016 on posh Kiawah Island in South Carolina, and more recently a fundraiser at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago. Visited the estate and provided his honey for the campaign gift. settlements
He said there was a festive atmosphere at Mar-a-Lago as Trump’s team prepared for the upcoming battle, and he dismissed concerns that Republican voters in South Carolina and across the U.S. were looking for a different candidate this time around. I am
“When people talk about other candidates running and they say I’m going to do this, or I’m going to do that, Trump has actually done it,” Gerhart says. “He has all the oxygen in the room.”
