traveling in New Hampshire then in South Carolina, the first two states to organize their respective primaries at the beginning of 2024, the former President of the United States is no longer on conquered ground.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
Donald Trump, “more angry than ever”, returned on Saturday January 28 with the campaign meetings, hoping to give a new momentum to his candidacy for the White House with a speech in the New Hampshire then A displacement in South Carolina, 1,500 kilometers away.
Two and a half months after embarking on the 2024 election race, the former President of the United States left his Florida residence for visits that owe nothing to chance. These two states will be among the first to organize their respective republican primaries at the beginning of 2024. The victory would guarantee Donald Trump a precious – and necessary – support – for the rest.
“We need a leader who is ready to tackle the forces ravaging our country,” he said in front of hundreds of people in Salem, a small town in New Hampshire where the Republican Party holds its annual agreement. “The 2024 election is our only chance to save our country and we need a leader who is ready to do it from the first day,” he repeated in Columbia, in South Carolina, in front of his more faithful political allies.
Saturday, Donald Trump played his usual score, repeating that the 2020 election had been stolen from him and wearing his rivals with contemptuous nicknames. He approached his favorite subjects, castigating a critical theory of the race, or the gender ideology he says to be taught within the army. He also praised his assessment in terms of public security and immigration, promising to save the country from “destruction by a corrupt, radical and selfish political establishment”. “I am more angry now and more determined today than I have ever been,” he said.
not in conquered terrain
But, after having reigned for years on the Grand Old Party, Donald Trump, 76, will not necessarily be on the ground conquered in the New Hampshire. In this border state of Canada, many local elected officials criticize the billionaire for having sealed the chances of the Republicans in the recent mid-term elections by supporting candidates deemed too extreme. “Personally, I think he has lost a lot of his attraction and aura,” said Mike Bordes, elected to the local parliament, who had however supported him in the 2020 election. If this official was present in Salem – “It is the former president, so we must welcome him” – he also says “ready to move forward and consider other options” for the republican investiture.
If, officially, the former president is the only declared republican candidate, several other contenders in this state seem ready to get started. Starting with his former governor Nikki Haley, who promised his supporters a very next announcement. Donald Trump also saw several of his big donors publicly announce that they would not support his candidacy in 2024, preferring to him that of Ron Desantis – Governor of Florida and rising star of the party, neither was he officially launched in the race. Political hassles including the former president, already surrounded by a myriad of surveys, would have gone well.
Despite these setbacks, beware of burying Donald Trump too quickly, repeat his supporters. The tribune, whose fall has been announced a thousand times, has so far survived all scandals. He could also greatly take advantage of the next lifting of the suspension of his Facebook and Instagram accounts, finding a major megaphone there. The candidate chosen by the Republican camp at the end of these primaries will face the one who will have been appointed by the Democratic Party in November 2024.