Trump on the Campaign Trail Again

Former President Donald Trump striking many of the touchstones of his culture war, grievance-based politics at the North Carolina Republican Convention Saturday in Greenville, N.C. Chris Seward/AP hibernate caption

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Chris Seward/AP

Former President Donald Trump hit many of the touchstones of his civilisation state of war, grievance-based politics at the N Carolina Republican Convention Saturday in Greenville, N.C.

Chris Seward/AP

A mean solar day after existence suspended from Facebook for a total of ii years, erstwhile President Donald Trump returned to the political arena Saturday night, furthering election lies and returning to a cynical and dark view of America.

"The 2020 presidential ballot, that election, the 2020 presidential election, was by far the well-nigh corrupt election in the history of our land," Trump baselessly claimed in a speech before the North Carolina Republican Party, continuing his false grievance nigh an election he lost.

He said Democrats "used COVID" and "used mail service-in ballots to steal an election." He chosen it a "third-globe election, like nosotros've never seen before." He derided it as the "offense of the century" and claimed that the "country is existence destroyed, perchance by people who have no correct to destroy it."

And then, equally he continued to effort and undermine the autonomous process with lies about an election that his former top cybersecurity official called the "most secure" in history, he did what he ofttimes does with a vulnerability — he tried to flip and cover it.

"I'm not the ane trying to undermine commonwealth," Trump said, "I am the 1 who's trying to salve information technology, please remember that."

That received his biggest applause of the nighttime.

If there's one thing Trump has never been able to deal with is losing. He has been able to spin his way out of bringing companies into bankruptcies and bad tabloid headlines almost failed marriages — and these continued lies almost the election are what he sees equally his off-ramp.

Get gear up to hear more than about information technology. This speech kicks off what'south probable to be a spree of summer campaigning. It was Trump's first public accost since his speaking at the Bourgeois Political Action Briefing in February.

Relitigating the election with groundless allegations comes every bit no surprise. It's been a focus of Trump'south since leaving office. That was evident in an NPR analysis of nearly 2 months of his statements.

Trump also reverted to a dark vision of America and Autonomous rule.

"As we gather tonight, our country is beingness destroyed before our very own optics," the former president said in a speech communication before the North Carolina Republican Political party Convention. "Law-breaking is exploding. Police departments are existence ripped apart and defunded. Can yous believe that?"

Trump warned of "savage" and "violent" people who "hate our country" and that "drugs" are "pouring in." If that sounds familiar, information technology's considering it hits many of the touchstones of Trump's culture-war, grievance-based politics — the kind that he used dating dorsum to first campaign announcement off in 2015.

In an orchestrated movement, Trump too endorsed Rep. Ted Budd for the open U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina. And he did so subsequently former Rep. Mark Walker won a straw poll by a substantial margin of the oversupply in attendance for who they wanted to run in the race.

Presently before Trump asked Budd to come upwardly and speak, his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, a North Carolina native, announced she would non run. She and husband Eric Trump recently moved to Florida.

"We're going to accept dorsum our country, and we're going to take it dorsum at a level that is very, very skilful for our country," Trump said, "and information technology's good for our citizens, because we can't allow bad things to happen to our land."

He added that "bad things are happening, perhaps like never before."

Before his speech, Trump boasted that the room would be "packed, all records broken." In that same emailed statement, he also furthered falsehoods about voting in the 2020 ballot that he lost, and in response to Facebook's declaration that he is banned until at least January 2023, he connected the lie that the election was "rigged."

Trump'due south business relationship was suspended and continues to exist, Facebook said, considering of the way he used the platform leading upward to and during the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Trump called the ruling "an insult" to the people who voted for him.

Hitting the route

Trump's choice of venue to kick off his campaigning is something of a soft launch. Doing information technology this mode doesn't have the pressure of creating a scene and crowd that a traditional rally would have.

"That Trump is doing a land party convention makes sense," Heye said. "It's a controlled environs and doesn't gamble the empty seats he could accept at a rally — no more than football game stadiums."

But Trump volition before long be trying to hold those large rallies again. He'south expected to hit the route with two rallies reportedly in the side by side month, with more to come later this summer in an effort to boost both allies and challengers to Republican incumbents who accept spoken out against him.

Some of those include Georgia Secretarial assistant of State Brad Raffensperger, who Trump thought should take washed more to help him win the state he lost in the presidential election, and Ohio Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, who voted for Trump's impeachment.

And then-President Donald Trump waves to supporters during a campaign rally on Oct. 24, 2020, in Circleville, Ohio. A return to these type of events is expected this summer. J.D. Pooley/Getty Images hide caption

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J.D. Pooley/Getty Images

Then-President Donald Trump waves to supporters during a campaign rally on Oct. 24, 2020, in Circleville, Ohio. A return to these type of events is expected this summer.

J.D. Pooley/Getty Images

These events are ostensibly nearly others, but in the past, they accept seemed to always come up back to Trump. Feeling constrained by the office and Washington, these rallies became nearly therapeutic for the 45th president. He would feed off the friendly crowds, reenergize and dig in with harder-line civilisation-war messages.

The most important person in the political party

Since leaving part and beingness booted from mainstream social media platforms, Trump has struggled to command the political narrative.

He ditched a blog-like feature on his website for statements, and a hyped new social media platform that has notwithstanding to materialize. To get buzz, he has been relegated to emailing statements — and hoping for them to exist shared on mainstream platforms.

And yet Trump remains the most influential figure and near powerful forcefulness in the Republican Party, despite an eager ingather of candidates waiting in the wings.

Trump remains very popular with Republican voters, and his positions are essentially GOP leaders' positions. That's despite party figures like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell initially criticizing Trump for his role in the January. 6 coup at the Capitol.

McCarthy has since cozied upwardly to Trump, betting that riding the former president's coattails is the best way to take back the House — and for him to become speaker. McConnell rallied other Republicans in blocking a 9/11-style independent commission to more fully investigate the Jan. vi riot.

That was singing from Trump's hymnal.

"Republicans in the House and Senate should non approve the Democrat trap of the January 6 Commission," Trump said in a statement May 18, calculation, "Republicans must get much tougher and much smarter, and stop beingness used by the Radical Left. Hopefully, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy are listening!"

They were.

Positioned to win the GOP nomination once more

Though Trump brought many voters into the fold, there are plenty of reasons why Republicans might recollect twice almost nominating him to exist their standard-bearer again. Those include:

• He lacks a discipline that many Republicans privately — and some publicly — believe fabricated it harder for them to pass policies conservatives intendance well-nigh;
• Some Republicans take grown tired of the chaos he brings — even if they agree with him on policy;
• He would be 78 years old if he were to win in 2024, the same age President Biden is now;
• His favorability ratings with independents are abysmally low; and
• Only 1 other president has won a second term after losing a reelection bid, Grover Cleveland, more a century agone.

"I'll be really curious to see how many candidates want to campaign with him in a general ballot," said Alex Conant, a founding partner at the consulting business firm Firehouse Strategies and former communication managing director for Republican Sen. Marco Rubio'south 2016 presidential entrada.

But when it comes to a Republican presidential primary, Trump is amend-positioned than anyone else in the party. Everyone knows who he is — and name recognition is critically of import — and Republicans beloved him.

In a contempo Quinnipiac poll, 85% of Republicans said they wanted candidates who agree with Trump. Two-thirds said they desire Trump to run again and exist the party's nominee in 2024.

"I think a lot of GOP voters are excited about the side by side generation of candidates," Conant said, "but if Trump ran in 2024, he'd be hard to beat out in a primary."

Putting the 2024 "field on ice"

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis seems to be setting the groundwork for a 2024 run. But like any other would-exist Republican candidate, he must look on sometime President Donald Trump. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hibernate caption

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Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigned for governor with an ad telling his child, playing with newspaper bricks, to "build the wall." And since winning that race, he has arguably been angling for a presidential run.

Both DeSantis and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, another possible 2024 candidate, have gained prominence in bourgeois circles for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic, equally they've defiantly resisted mask mandates and kept businesses open. Noem is as well to speak earlier the North Carolina GOP on Saturday.

Others, like Due south Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Trump Un Ambassador Nikki Haley, have gotten a lot of attention as potential candidates.

Scott delivered the response to Biden's address to a articulation session of Congress. And Haley, who has had an up-and-downward human relationship with Trump, launched a group that's supposed to advocate for conservative policies, merely it looks more like a site for a Haley campaign-in-waiting.

And, of course, there'southward quondam Vice President Mike Pence. He, likewise, appears fix to run if given the gamble. He has now made appearances in Texas for a country fundraiser and in the early presidential principal states of S Carolina and New Hampshire.

He made news Th in New Hampshire when he said he doesn't think he and Trump will "ever see eye to eye" about Jan. 6. Pence was targeted by the pro-Trump mob that day, and Trump tweeted during the coup that "Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution."

Pence's comments splitting with Trump about the insurrection made headlines, but the bulk of his New Hampshire speech was laudatory toward the former president and what he said they accomplished. It was an attempt to thread a very fine needle to aid his standing as a potential serious candidate.

Trump, though, doesn't appear fix to pass the billy, or rather the "drape of anger," as he once put it during his 2016 run.

"I am looking at it very seriously," Trump told ally and bourgeois media personality Sean Hannity in April well-nigh whether he will run again. "Across seriously. From a legal standpoint, I don't want to really talk about it yet. It'due south a little also soon."

On Friday, responding to the Facebook news, Trump gave perhaps the clearest hint withal that he may be intending to run. Threatening not to have dinner anymore with Facebook CEO Marker Zuckerberg and his wife, Trump began his statement with this phrase:

"Next fourth dimension I'm in the White House... ."

Information technology's a proficient bet Trump will likely tease out his concluding decision until the very last minute, finer putting the other candidates in a deep freeze.

"His being out there keeps the rest of the field on water ice," Heye said. "They'll go to New Hampshire and Iowa, etc., merely they can't make a ton of hires, and they absolutely cannot announce a campaign. The first i to do so volition take all sorts of incoming from Trump."

That will irritate other potential candidates. While they try to stay in Trump's skillful graces, there will be the inevitable grousing from people close to those candidates in anonymous quotes in stories about the presidential field, perchance griping "sooner rather than later," Heye said, "but I'grand not sure if it matters. Trump got into the 2016 race relatively late, had no real campaign, and still won."

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2021/06/05/1003282315/silenced-on-facebook-and-twitter-trump-is-set-to-speak-out-again-on-campaign-tra

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