Donald Trump is finally campaigning on Saturday when he travels across two states in a one-day panning, more than two and a half months after announcing his third straight run for the White House to Salem, New Hampshire and Columbia, South Carolina.
While some say the former president’s 2024 campaign got off to a slow start, others are refreshed by his approach this time around and say it’s a better strategy to win the party’s favor while he once again vies for a second chance in the White House .
Ahead of his first campaign event of 2024, Trump travels north Saturday morning to appear at the New Hampshire GOP’s annual winter convention.
In the afternoon, the former president will be joined at his rally at the South Carolina State Capitol by GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham and Gov. Henry McMaster — both key allies in the third primary competitive state.
Former President Donald Trump attends his first high-profile campaign events on Saturday, with stops in early primary contender states of New Hampshire and South Carolina. Pictured: Trump announced his third consecutive bid for the White House on Nov. 15 in Mar-a-Lago
The Saturday event was branded as more low-key than its massive campaign rallies in 2016 and 2020 – at least three advisers claim the rally will be “more intimate” than before.
It’s unclear if Trump is taking a fresh approach overall or if his team is just preemptively dealing with the expectations, as excitement for Trump within the GOP appears to be fading as multiple polls show voters favor a different Republican candidate and their nominee in 2024 could.
Trump could attract some legitimate key challengers from South Carolina, as former state governor Nikki Haley, who also served under Trump as US ambassador to the United Nations, and junior Republican senator Tim Scott have been named as potential 2024 candidates.
Once again, the president’s primary field is expected to be quite crowded with at least a few dozen names floating around.
At the South Carolina rally, Trump will be joined by Senator Lindsey Graham and Governor Henry McMaster
“There’s an openness to a new generation of Republican leaders — that doesn’t mean the president can’t win. I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion,” New Hampshire Republican Mike Dennehy told NBC News.
Former aide to the late presidential nominee Senator John McCain said Trump is not a candidate for the nomination this year.
“He’ll have to earn it,” Dennehy said.
Some say Trump would do him well if he embarked more on so-called “retail politics” — advice he appears to be taking after balking at that approach in 2016 and 2020.
Retail politics is a term that refers to national candidates attending local events to target voters on a smaller, more individual basis.
This form of campaigning would send a signal to party leaders — and those who have moved away from Trump in recent years — that the former president respects voters and the political process.
Trump could enlist some legitimate key challengers from South Carolina, as former state governor Nikki Haley (left), who also served under Trump as US ambassador to the United Nations, and junior Republican senator Tim Scott (right) are named as potential 2024 candidates became candidates
“He broke the mold a bit,” Dennehy said. “He wasn’t a candidate who would hold town hall meetings or walk the streets talking to small businesses.”
“If he’s smart, I think he’ll take it down a notch, bring it out to the people more, walk the high streets and throw some smaller house parties.”
But Democrats aren’t convinced Trump changed his stripes overnight, claiming his radical ideology is facilitating a party where more level-headed candidates cannot succeed.
“In his bid to consolidate support and deter competitors, Donald Trump is a reminder to all of just how extreme the MAGA agenda has been – from pioneering the most extreme abortion bans to giving away tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and largest corporations and embracing the most most fringe politics and divisive rhetoric,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement on Friday.
“The rest of the GOP 2024 field is tripping over themselves for being just as extreme and this is just the beginning of their race to MAGA base,” he added.
Trump’s rally at the South Carolina State Capitol is expected to be “more intimate” than the famous “mega rallies” of 2016 and 2020.
New Hampshire and South Carolina are both key states for politicians looking to win that party’s nomination for president — and are among the states politicians go to when they campaign every four years.
The first state to hold a primary is the Iowa primary, followed by the New Hampshire primary, the South Carolina primary, and another Nevada primary.
All four states are closely monitored and serve as indicators of how well a primary candidate may do in the rest of the nation.
In 2020, President Joe Biden fared poorly in crowded Democratic primary races in both New Hampshire and Iowa, but later gained ground in South Carolina when Rep. Jim Clybrun threw his support behind the incumbent president.
Despite Trump winning South Carolina by 14.9 percent against Hillary Clinton in 2016 and by 11.7 points in the General Electron against Biden in 2020, support for the former president appears to be waning.
A South Carolina Policy Council poll released this week shows that 37 percent of Republican voters in the state want to see Trump as the GOP nominee, compared to the 47 percent who want someone else to win the seat.
Additionally, a head-to-head match with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis showed Trump losing by nearly 20 points.