Trump appears to be targeting potential 2024 GOP rivals, says he doesn’t have much ‘competition’

Salem, New Hampshire – Former President Donald Trump targeted his potential challengers for the Republican presidential nomination when he began a new phase of this 2024 White House campaign by stopping in the state that first brought him to the presidency.

Pointing to his 2020 reappointment as the incumbent, Trump recalled during a speech in the nation’s first primary presidential state of New Hampshire on Saturday that he didn’t have much competition.

Then, looking at a potential 2024 GOP primary field that could eventually include rivals like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, and other prominent Republicans, Trump stated, “I don’t think we have competition.” this year. time, to be honest.

The former president also railed against recent criticism from political pundits that the first months of his third White House campaign were anything but impressive.

TRUMP STOP IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, S.C. STARTS A NEW STAGE OF HIS 2024 CAMPAIGN

Former President Donald Trump delivers a speech at the annual meeting of the New Hampshire Republican Party in Salem, New Hampshire on January 28, 2023. Trump is joined by outgoing NHGOP chairman Steve Stepanek (right), who joins the Trump campaign as a senior adviser. in New Hampshire
(Fox News)

“They said he wasn’t campaigning…maybe he went astray,” Trump said, mimicking his critics.

The former president then stressed that “I’m more committed now than ever.”

Trump made his comments as he headlined to hundreds of party leaders, elected officials and activists in attendance at the New Hampshire Republican Party’s annual caucus.

New Hampshire, which held its first White House primary in a century, was the scene of Trump’s first election victory in 2016, propelling him to the Republican presidential nomination and ultimately the White House.

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Trump’s New Hampshire visit, first reported by Fox News earlier this week, was his first stop of the day. He later headed to South Carolina, another important early voting state that hosts the third contest on the GOP presidential nominating calendar just after New Hampshire.

Gathering Saturday at the South Carolina State Capitol Building, where he is expected to announce his leadership team in Palmetto State with Sen. Lindsey Graham and Governor Henry McMaster on hand, will be Trump’s first campaign event in 2024 since his candidacy was announced midway through. . November at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Former President Donald Trump (left) after his headline address at the annual meeting of the New Hampshire Republican Party in Salem, New Hampshire on January 28, 2023. Trump is joined by outgoing NHGOP chairman Steve Stepanek (center), who joins Trump. campaign as a senior adviser in New Hampshire and NRC committee member Chris Ager (right), who succeeded Stepanek as chairman
(Fox News)

As he builds his leadership teams in early voting states, the former president announced that Steve Stepanek “will be joining us as a senior adviser to my New Hampshire campaign.”

Stepanek, a former state legislator and businessman who co-chaired the 2016 Trump campaign in Granite State, ended a four-year term on Saturday as head of the state party committee.

The former president has been very warmly received by the crowd in New Hampshire as Trump supporters and allies have tightened control of the state party in recent years.

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“We are starting right here as a presidential candidate… This is just the beginning of our agenda. I look forward to returning many times over,” Trump advertised.

And he predicted that “in a year’s time we’ll win the New Hampshire primary and with the help of the good people of this state… we’ll take back the White House.”

While Trump is by far the only major Republican to launch the 2024 presidential campaign, he remains the most popular and powerful politician in the Republican Party and the most ardent fundraiser in the party when it comes to grassroots activism.

Former President Donald Trump announces his 2024 presidential candidacy at a campaign event at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida on Tuesday, November 15, 2022.
(Eva Marie Uscategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

But political pundits on both the left and right have set fire to his campaign launch, and he has come under fire from Democrats and some Republicans for the controversial actions and comments he has made over the past two months. In addition, after the GOP’s weak performance in the midterm elections – when the party fared worse in what is expected to be a red wave – Trump is also accused of raising polarizing Republican candidates, who ended up losing in November.

While he didn’t take sides in the flammable GOP primary in New Hampshire in September, the MAGA-style candidates who won the US Senate and both nominations for Congress crashed in the general election in November.

DESANTIS beats Trump in crucial primary state poll

Two days before the former president’s arrival in Granite State, a new poll by the University of New Hampshire Research Center finds Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of Trump by double digits in a hypothetical match for the 2024 Republican Party nomination for president. . in the first ground state.

DeSantis, who pundits expect to run for president later this year but has yet to say whether he will start a campaign, received 42% support in a poll of likely GOP voters in New Hampshire’s presidential primary, and Trump – 30%. The poll is encouraging DeSantis supporters, including two outside political groups not affiliated with the governor, one national and one from New Hampshire, who are trying to convince the Florida governor to run for president. Both groups set up booths at the NHGOP meeting in Salem.

Until recently, Trump was the clear and overwhelming leader in early 2024 Republican presidential nomination polls. But in several nationwide polls released last month, Trump trails DeSantis, whose credibility among conservatives across the country has skyrocketed over the past three years. DeSantis was re-elected by a landslide in November to a second term in Florida, a former state battlefield that has been increasingly red over the past two cycles.

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Trump’s allies and supporters have stressed that opinion polls have long underestimated the former president’s support since his first campaign in the White House in 2016.

And Trump, during his comments in New Hampshire, touted his position in multiple polls, saying “we’re so far ahead in the polls.”

The former president has targeted his White House successor by criticizing President Biden on several fronts, including the current president’s proposal to move New Hampshire lower on the Democratic Party’s nominating calendar, infuriating both Democrats and Republicans in Granite state. .

According to US President Joe Biden, he pushed to move the New Hampshire primary even further on the presidential nominating calendar.
(Mandel Ngan)

The Republicans are not changing their nominating calendar, keeping New Hampshire second on their schedule behind the Iowa caucuses.

“I make a solemn promise that when I return to the White House, I will make sure that New Hampshire remains home to the first Republican primaries in the country for many, many years to come,” Trump said.

Trump’s stops in New Hampshire and South Carolina seem like an attempt to plant a flag as his campaign begins to move at a faster pace.

“This will be the first of many trips,” Trump campaign senior adviser Chris Lacivita told Fox News. “This is what we have been looking forward to. The early bird gets the worm. It’s all about getting out, organizing, getting your people together, motivating them, inspiring them.”

LaCivita emphasized that “we start early and we start aggressively, and the establishment of this organization, I think, bodes well for the future.”

Although Trump was the first candidate to announce it, the field for the Republican presidential nomination is likely to widen soon. Some of the likely or potential contenders hail from the two states Trump visited on Saturday. Two-term former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina appear to be moving towards launching possible campaigns. And in New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu is also considering the proposal.

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“New Hampshire is full of racers. We love putting candidates to the test, and Donald Trump is no exception. He will have to work just like any other candidate who wants to win in New Hampshire. He did it in 2016 quite deftly. And he has without a doubt the best infrastructure of any candidate, so he’s in a good position,” veteran New Hampshire conservative activist Greg Moore told Fox News.

But Moore, longtime state director of Americans for Prosperity, stressed that Trump “still has to prove himself to New Hampshire voters like any other candidate.”