Advisors to the ex-president see the appearance as part of a gradual expansion of his activities in view of the elections after a month of relatively private campaigning.
“It will not be a rally but a more intimate event where he will unveil his leadership in a state hosting a key early GOP primary competition,” strategists told Politico newspaper.
The sources also mentioned that the former ruler held activities such as dinners with top donors and party leaders, as well as other behind-the-scenes moves.
As the newspaper recalls, Trump scored a decisive victory in the 2016 South Carolina primary, where he received nearly a third of the vote in a split field.
Now the tycoon could face two possible Republican rivals from the state: Senator Tim Scott and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, the report added.
Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 White House shortly after the November 8 midterm elections, for which he received criticism.
Although forecasts put Republicans as favorites for a majority in Congress, they only managed to dominate the House of Representatives (with 222 seats out of 435 in this case), while the Senate remained in the hands of Democrats, reaching 51 of its 100 seats.
Questions include the fact that the former president backed candidates in the primaries who were seen as weaker options for the midterms but were more loyal to him than their opponents, and many of them lost votes seen as key.
Also last month, Trump sparked controversy when, more than two years after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, he asked for the United States Constitution to be overturned in order to void the election and restore him to power .
The New Yorker is also at the center of investigations by the Justice Department over his alleged attempts to thwart the 2020 election winner’s transfer of power and keeping secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago mansion more than a year after leaving the Oval Office.
ro/cgc