When Donald J. Trump got here to South Dakota in July 2020, then a president in the midst of his re-election marketing campaign, he stood in entrance of Mount Rushmore and outlined a darkish imaginative and prescient of what he claimed his opponents on the left would do to the nation.
Three years, an election defeat and 4 indictments later, Mr. Trump returned on Friday to South Dakota for a rally, the place he struck an identical message: that he was the only real bulwark protecting America from falling into wreck.
“They’re just destroying our country,” Mr. Trump informed a crowd of roughly 7,000, this time at a hockey enviornment in Rapid City, S.D. “And if we don’t take it back — if we don’t take it back in ’24, I really believe we’re not going to have a country left.”
Appearing at a large-scale occasion for the primary time since he stood for a mug shot in Georgia late final month, Mr. Trump acknowledged that his circumstances had modified. Yet he referred to the 4 prison instances in opposition to him proudly — and as an applause line.
“I’m being indicted for you,” Mr. Trump, the front-runner within the G.O.P. presidential major race, stated to the viewers. “That’s not part of the job description,” he added, “but I’m being indicted for you.”
Mr. Trump didn’t point out the Georgia indictment or the reserving picture at the same time as his marketing campaign has used it in fund-raising appeals and started promoting merchandise with the picture as quickly because it was launched. A smattering of attendees have been carrying T-shirts that includes Mr. Trump’s mug shot and the phrase “Never Surrender.”
“The mug shot did good for him,” stated Lydia Lozano of Summerset, S.D., who wore Mr. Trump’s mug shot on a blue T-shirt with the define of an American flag. The prices in Georgia, she added, didn’t hassle her, nor did Mr. Trump’s different indictments.
“They’re just grasping at straws to try and get him to stop running,” Ms. Lozano stated. “And he’s running anyway.”
Mr. Trump, too, marveled that his ballot numbers within the major had appeared to rise after his indictments. “I’m the only person in the history of politics who has been indicted whose poll numbers went up,” he stated.
Still, polls have proven {that a} majority of Americans consider his prison instances have been warranted, and a few Republicans fear that the 91 complete prices in opposition to him may damage him within the basic election. Mr. Trump’s authorized points may additionally create logistical and monetary challenges that would make it tough for him to marketing campaign successfully.
South Dakota, the place Republicans have a agency stronghold, is a curious selection for an occasion throughout a political marketing campaign. It doesn’t maintain an early nominating contest, and it doesn’t qualify as a battleground state. The final time a Democratic presidential candidate gained the state was 1964.
Still, as Mr. Trump’s marketing campaign has tried to cut back its prices, particularly as Mr. Trump’s authorized charges mount, it has welcomed alternatives for the previous president to attend large-scale occasions held by different teams fairly than staging its personal costly ones.
Friday’s rally was organized by the South Dakota Republican Party. The Republican governor of the state, Kristi Noem — who endorsed Mr. Trump’s marketing campaign in her remarks introducing him — stated that organizers had invited different candidates however that Mr. Trump was the one one who had accepted.
Ms. Noem additionally labored to carry Mr. Trump to Mount Rushmore for the Independence Day celebration in 2020. A looping video of that look greeted the crowds submitting into the sector on Friday.
Speaking for about 110 minutes, Mr. Trump largely doubled down on his 2020 remarks, repeatedly saying that Democrats have been threatening to rewrite historical past, exchange America’s foundational values and deface monuments like Mount Rushmore. But he was much less imprecise on Friday concerning the perceived threats to the nation, singling out particular political opponents.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a political rival within the Republican major, was an “unskilled politician” who “sided with the communists” in opposition to farmers. Television networks have been “evil.” President Biden, he stated, was “grossly incompetent and very dangerous,” if not “the most crooked president in history.”
As he has repeatedly, he claimed with out proof that each one 4 instances in opposition to him have been a part of a politically motivated marketing campaign by Mr. Biden. (Two of the instances are being introduced by native prosecutors in New York and Georgia, whereas the 2 federal instances are being led by an impartial particular counsel.)
The audio system who preceded him superior his view.
“How many indictments does it take to steal the presidential election in 2024?” Josh Haeder, South Dakota’s treasurer, rhetorically requested. “Here’s the answer: There’s not enough, because Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States of America.”
Source: www.nytimes.com