Ex-President’s campaign stutters
Trump opens his campaign – and attracts a few hundred people
Former US President Donald Trump has started his third campaign for the White House. But his election campaign is stuttering, Trump is apparently no longer able to mobilize the masses.
Published: 01/29/2023 at 9 minutes ago
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First official election appearance of ex-US President Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential election.
With a declaration of war on the “corrupt political establishment”, Donald Trump (76) tried on Saturday to give momentum to his renewed candidacy for the office of US President. He was “angrier and more determined than ever,” Trump told several hundred people in the small town of Salem, New Hampshire. “We need a president who is ready to go from day one,” said the 76-year-old.
He would later travel to Columbia, the capital of the state of South Carolina, for a second appearance, where he would present his campaign team. Both events are intended to give a boost to his faltering campaign after Trump announced in mid-November that he would run for the presidency for a third time.
Nothing new from Trump
There were no discernible changes in his political message: Trump repeated his frequently refuted allegations of electoral fraud and gave his political rivals derogatory nicknames. He raised the sharpest accusations against critics in his own conservative ranks, who were “even more dangerous than Democrats”.
New Hampshire and South Carolina are among the first states to hold primary elections for the next US presidential election in early 2024. In South Carolina, other politicians could throw their hats in the ring, including former governor and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley (51).
Opponent DeSantis
Several former Trump supporters have publicly stated that they will no longer support Trump with donations in 2024, but instead support Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (44). He was triumphantly re-elected as governor of the state of Florida at the midterms, but has not yet officially announced his candidacy.
Trump was voted out of office in November 2020 after just one term in the White House. The announcement of a renewed candidacy came exactly a week after the midterm congressional elections, in which the Republicans had fared worse than expected and several Trump-backed candidates suffered heavy defeats. Many Republicans blame Trump, who has divided the United States like no other president before him, for the disappointing course of the midterms. (AFP)