US Trump is angry, again

Donald Trump, the former US president, tried to get his spluttering White House bid off the launchpad last Saturday, declaring himself “more angry” than ever as he became the first candidate to hit the 2024 election campaign trail.

Trump swung through New Hampshire and South Carolina, looking to shake off concerns about a lacklustre campaign and “Trump fatigue” among voters. “We need a president who’s ready to hit the ground running on day one and boy, am I hitting the ground,” he told the New Hampshire state Republican party’s annual meeting. “They [the media] said, ‘He’s not doing rallies! He’s not campaigning! Maybe he’s lost that step.’ I’m more angry now and I’m more committed now than I ever was.”

Trump, now 76, entered the New Hampshire event nt to the sou sound of singer Lee ee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA SA and an began with his customary dubious bio claim there were thousands of p people outside the packed venue.

Despite the advice of many Republicans to move on from his “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from him, he could not resist an early swipe. Trump ticked off familiar subjects and dusted off old anecdotes, from energy independence to Hunter Biden’s laptop. “We’re going Marxist,” he said, before decrying the participation of transgender people in women’s sports. H He championed “gas stoves” and “gas car cars” over their electric counterparts.

So Some opinion polls have shown Trump mp more m vulnerable among Republicans than han any time since 2015, with Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida,

emerging as his principal rival. But the former president casually denied that he faces serious competition in the primary. “We are so far ahead in the polls … We’re gonna win and we’re gonna win very big.”

Later, in Columbia, the ex-president was joined on stage by South Carolina governor Henry McMaster, frequent golf partner Senator Lindsey Graham and other team members including Congressman Joe Wilson, who in 2009 heckled President Barack Obama during a speech by shouting: “You lie!”

Speaking to 500 people, Trump promised to restore “election integrity” and stop an “invasion” at the southern border. He claimed that the true number of people crossing it could be 15 million, many from “prisons” and “mental institutions”.

Trump also claimed that America is “at the brink of world war three” and that, if he were president, he would have a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine negotiated in 24 hours.

New Hampshire and South Carolina are seen as potential kingmakers since they are among the first to hold their nominating contests. In New Hampshire, Republican Governor Chris Sununu has said he is having conversations about a primary bid, while in South Carolina, Senator Tim Scott is seen as a potential contender.

Rick Wilson, a cofounder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, believes last Saturday’s events will put pressure on rival candidates to show their hand. “All the other candidates that want to be president on the Republican side have to build from scratch,” he said. “They all have to start at zero. They all have to build up a campaign organisation, a staff, a team. They all lack a certain degree of name recognition and star power. Even DeSantis is not a well known quantity outside of a very narrow circle of Republican mega-donors. As we watch this whole thing shamble into position, you will see Trump being able to start to roll up some of these early states.”

Wilson remains convinced that Trump will win the Republican nomination. “That will not be a great thing for the party or for the other people but with the structural strengths that he has with the base – and a bunch of other candidates in the race dividing up the non-Trump vote – it’s over before it starts. We’re going to end up with a less exciting primary than people think.”

But Frank Luntz, a pollster who has advised numerous Republican campaigns, takes the opposite view: he believes that Trump is all washed up.

“How much Trump has fallen is a big deal and how much DeSantis has gained is a big deal,” Luntz said. “I used to think that Trump was the prohibitive favourite but, now that he’s below 50% and the first vote is still a year away, he’s bleeding support.

“I talk to Trump people. We did a focus group on him a few weeks ago. They still think he was one of the greatest presidents in American history. But there’s too much drama and too much controversy and they’ve had enough. The conclusion from them is: Mr Trump, thank you for your service, this country is grateful, but it’s time to move on.”