Former President Donald Trump started out his 2024 White House campaign with a promise to New Hampshire voters he would stand by them.
The 2024 cycle has been churning for months, despite Trump operating as the single top-tier candidate participating. On Saturday afternoon, the former president addressed the Granite State GOP annual meeting.
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Trump announced Stephen Sepanek will be leaving his post as the state GOP chairman and is joining his team as the senior adviser for his campaign in the state. The boost was the first of several promised olive branches to woo the first-in-the-nation primary voters.
“From the very beginning I have very strongly defended New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary status,” Trump said, to rowdy applause. “And I refuse to let any Republican, and there are some, you know who they are, even think about taking that cherished status away.”
The implicit promise turned into an explicit attack on his 2020 rival President Joe Biden, who has lobbied to move the first Democratic primary contest out of the Granite State.
On Saturday, Trump suggested the move was Biden’s way of taking “revenge” on New Hampshire after he lost badly there in the 2020 primary.
Much of Trump’s hourlong speech on Saturday looked back on his time as president, while touching on early struggles by Biden, primarily the highly criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The former president slammed Biden for withdrawing troops from the country before getting civilians out, and criticized generals for leaving behind weapons, vehicles, and armor.
While Trump has remained quiet on the campaign trail, he laughed off those criticisms, joking that he is being forced to get out and hold events because news outlets are asking why he isn’t active. The lull will be over soon, Trump promised, announcing “rallies starting very soon.”
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“We’re gonna do them soon,” he said. “Bigger than they’ve ever been.”
Saturday’s afternoon stop was the first of two events, with the former president and his team making their way to South Carolina for an “intimate” event where he will be joined by Gov. Henry McMaster, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and others when he will announce his leadership team for that state’s campaign.
