His appearance was a shot across the bow in a critical primary state with two home-grown contenders.
Swaying to the music, a sweaty woman raised her red Gatorade to the sky. To withstand the heat, a wheelchair-bound man removed his shirt.
"2024 is our last fight," Trump proceeded. " The forgotten men and women will no longer be forgotten under our direction.
The twice-indicted former president's presence in the three-square-mile city shut down businesses and strained municipal resources, so people flocked from nearby counties and other states to see him. After Trump's team and Republican elected officials in the state persuaded the city to agree to Secret Service shutdowns around its main business strip, the city seized on the city's long-planned annual Independence Day festival and announced the rally two weeks ago.
It was a stark contrast to the more subdued event that DeSantis held last week in South Carolina, where he took questions in a North Augusta community center.
Local homeowners attempted to rent $50 parking spaces in their front yards in Pickens, where vendors set up days in advance. Overnight, some attendees slept outside the entrance gate. On Saturday, people with an entrepreneurial spirit sold camping chairs, bottled water, and hot dogs in a line that ran through the city center. To make fans, attendees of the rally ripped open cardboard boxes, and Trump's campaign rushed to bring pallets of water and Gatorade to the crowd to hydrate them.
When Trump's branded plane flew overhead around 11 a.m., the street erupted in cheers. The Greenville school choir, which was recently prevented from singing the national anthem inside the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, performed. The boos kept coming at Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has backed Trump.
Donald Trump grins at Lindsey Graham as he talks at a microhone.
"He's there when you need him": ELECTION By LUCY HODGMAN, Trump defends Lindsey Graham at a South Carolina rally. "I was open," Tena Stark, a Pickens native who now resides in Tennessee, said of her consideration of the Republican primary field. However, I've made up my mind. He seems like the strongest man for the job, in my opinion.
According to Bruce, her husband, Trump was the only one who was able to persuade him to drive four hours and arrive at 4:45 a.m. to stand in the heat for a rally. He said he liked the Florida candidate but believes that DeSantis needs "more time" to prepare for the presidency, while briefly skipping over his name.
The RNC's debate plans have a major, largely unnoticed problem. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signs a $54 billion budget with "StayNJ." The White House cautiously opens the door to study blocking the sun's rays to slow global warming. Trump could hardly have chosen a location for his rally that was more favorable. Pickens Region upheld Trump more than some other piece of South Carolina in the 2020 political race, with almost 75% of the vote going to Best. However, his appearance here was a blow in a crucial primary state with two local candidates.
Haley, the state's former governor, and Scott, the state's current junior senator, are particularly under intense pressure to perform well on their home turf. In addition, South Carolina is one of the early states in which the former president enjoys strong support from the establishment, in contrast to the other early states, where Trump also dominates polls. He has won the support of the state's governor, senior senator, and three congressmen, something that Republicans who are elected at the state and federal levels have so far avoided doing in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada.
"This state selects presidents," the former Lieutenant Gov. Andre Bauer, who has likewise embraced Trump, said from the stage. " At the point when we meet up and show this sort of help for an individual, it says a lot about the possible candidate."
Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, and Ron Desantis are depicted in this ELECT photo. By the time Trump took the stage, the crowd had already begun to thin out. It looked like some of his supporters had left in search of shade, cold drinks, and a break from the hot sun.
Walter Passage, who works Central avenue Pizza shop, at first attempted to utilize Facebook to presell parking spots at his business and considered offering pizza by the cut to bystanders, however he in the end surrendered and chose to "assume the misfortune" by shutting. Passage said he isn't disturbed, considering the convention a "notable occasion for our little city."
It was likewise a significant interruption. The Pickens police boss told the nearby paper his officials needed to study "each parking area around here" to sort out some way to oblige the monstrous group. What's more, most outstandingly, Trump himself called into the Pickens Province Messenger last week to give a select meeting to the week after week paper, referring to Pickens as "my region."
Jason Evans, a reporter, asked Trump, "Those are the people I love." We'll set new records. They will be broken together.
In March, Trump held his first 2024 campaign rally in Waco, Texas. This was his first rally in an early-nominating state, as his May rally in Iowa was canceled due to weather concerns.
Trump detailed his dissatisfaction with the numerous criminal cases against him in his speech on Saturday, which was scheduled to be followed by the city's regularly scheduled Independence Day weekend celebrations and fireworks. Over the course of more than an hour, Trump blasted President Joe Biden and briefly criticized DeSantis, drawing light boos from the audience as he attacked DeSantis' farming record.
It was the most recent in a long line of elaborate July 4 celebrations that Trump has attended in recent years. Others include his address at Mount Rushmore in 2020 and his "Salute to America" event on the National Mall in 2019, making him the first president in 68 years to deliver an Independence Day address there.
Nate Leupp, the previous seat of the Greenville Province Conservative Faction, said simple interest regarding planned operations and how Pickens planned to pull off the occasion was inciting a few conservatives he knew to go.
Leupp stated prior to the rally, "This one being outside in a small rural town has gotten a lot of people interested in it." I've known about a many individuals needing to go only thus."