Trump vows in South Carolina speech to ‘complete unfinished MAGA business’

Donald Trump vowed Saturday to win in 2024 and ‘complete unfinished business’ of his presidency after failing to earn a second term.

Speaking from the South Carolina State House on Saturday before an intimate crowd of a few hundred supporters, Trump also said he would reverse much of the policies enacted by President Joe Biden.

He promised to kick illegal immigrants out of the country after millions flooded into the U.S. with the relaxed migrant policies put in place by the current administration.

Trump also said that he would stop people born male from competing in women’s sports.

‘Together we will complete the unfinished business of Making American Great Again,’ Trump said to cheers from the few who were lucky enough to get tickets. 

Donald Trump said that he would ‘unfinished business of Making American Great Again’ during remarks from the South Carolina Capitol on Saturday evening 

Joining the former president, among others, was South Carolina was Senator Lindsey Graham

Trump told the group of South Carolina Republicans that they need to vote for him because he’s the only one ‘who can take on the whole system.’ A campaign adviser said there were 400 people in attendance. 

During his remarks, the former president was flanked by Senator Lindsey Graham, Governor Henry McMcaster and Representatives Russell Fry, Joe Wilson and William Timmons, among other state and local leaders. 

Some supporters caused an awkward stir when they yelled ‘Trump won 2020’ when Graham took the microphone to throw his support behind Trump’s 2024 run.

The shouts were in protest of Graham failing to embrace Trump’s claim that he was the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election against Biden.

In January 2021, Graham said that challenging the 2020 election results in Congress as ‘not going to do any good.’

Trump’s speech Saturday was only his second public remarks since announcing his candidacy on November 15 – and was seen as a lackluster start to his campaign by those expecting it to kick-off with a bang.

In remarks from New Hampshire earlier on Saturday, Trump reassured he would start up his larger rallies soon.

While the South Carolina remarks included several of Trump’s ‘greatest hits’ attack-lines, it was formatted much differently than his famous mega-rallies, which he became known for in the 2016 and 2020 campaigns.

Usually, Trump rallies are open to the public, but his event on Saturday was invite-only and was organized like an event typical of other more traditional political campaigns.

Speaking just 20-feet from a statue of Confederate icon John C. Calhoun in the South Carolina State House, Trump repeatedly said having Biden in the White House is like it being April Fools every day.

The intimate group of approximately 400 supporters gathered in the South Carolina State House in Columbia, South Carolina for Trump’s second remarks after announcing his candidacy on November 15

During his remarks, Trump was flanked by Senator Lindsey Graham, Governor Henry McMcaster and Representatives Russell Fry, Joe Wilson and William Timmons, among other state and local leaders

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As attendees filtered into the South Carolina Capitol Building, smooth jazz and instrumental music played over speakers rather than the usual classic rock and pop hits along with theater stage staples played at rallies.

Republican Party members and other GOP groups in South Carolina were able to clinch tickets to Trump’s only second public remarks since announcing in November after speaking earlier on Saturday in New Hampshire.

Trump put to bed rumors that his campaign has started off slow and speculation that he is ditching his mega-rallies.

The former president boasted that he is the first GOP candidate in the 2024 presidential race to campaign in both New Hampshire and South Carolina, which are early primary states.

‘No other candidate is working this early to win every last vote and save America from Biden’s destruction,’ Trump wrote in a campaign email sent out between his remarks in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Trump’s event Saturday was not open to the public, like his usual mega rallies, but was invite-only in the intimate location with a capacity of approximately 300 people

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham took the microphone at one point to voice his support for Trump’s 2024 run, but was met with some shouts from audience members saying ‘Trump won 2020,’ in reference to the senator’s hesitance to embrace the 2020 election fraud claims

Attendees at Trump’s remarks in South Carolina said they are more interested in having four-more years of the former president in the White House before having any other Republican be the nominee – this includes highly popular Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Moms for Liberty chapter chair in Colleton County, South Carolina said that while she does support Trump she doesn’t much care for his ‘antics,’ and said that DeSantis does propose a more ‘poised’ option.

Cyndi Roberts, 50, said Moms for Liberty is taking the lead from Florida, where the group was founded, to try and flip school districts across the state red and in favor of more parents rights in education.

‘I don’t like his antics,’ the mother-of-three told DailyMail.com. ‘I do like what he does for my pocketbook and what he does for education.’

A group of 10 Moms for Liberty were among the about 100 people gathered in the South Carolina State House for Trump’s remarks on Saturday evening.

Despite Trump winning South Carolina by 14.9 percent against Hillary Clinton in 2016 and by 11.7 points in the general election with Joe Biden in 2020, it appears support for the former president is waning in the Palmetto State.

A South Carolina Policy Council poll released this week shows that 37 percent of Republican voters in the state want to see Trump as the GOP nominee compared to the 47 percent who want to see someone else win the spot.

Additionally, a head-to-head matchup with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis showed Trump losing by nearly 20 points.

A separate nationwide poll released by Emerson College last week shows Trump leading Biden in a hypothetical one-v-one by 3 points.

That same poll shows Trump leading DeSantis in a GOP primary by 26 percent, a commanding lead that contradicts some other polling.

Just hours before arriving in South Carolina, Trump spoke at his first high-profile 2024 campaign event in the first-in-the-nation primary election state of New Hampshire.

The remarks had him sounding more like a politician than he did during any of his 2016 or 2020 rallies – showing the ex-president may be ready to ‘play ball’ in his third presidential campaign.

He also said that Biden running the country makes every day feel like April Fools Day.

Donald Trump defended himself against claims he has been slow to start his 2024 campaign for president in his first high-profile event with a speech in first-in-the-nation primary election state of New Hampshire

Trump was speaking to the New Hampshire Republican Party at their annual meeting in Salem, New Hampshire. The first-in-the-nation primary election state is vital for those seeking the presidential nomination every four years

While Trump did resurrect some of his greatest hits during remarks at the New Hampshire Republican Party’s annual meeting on Saturday afternoon, he mostly stuck to the script.

He did, however, make sure to reassure voters that he is still ‘angry’ and still invested in winning and promised the rallies are coming ‘soon.’

‘The rallies, which are starting very soon, even though it’s very early,’ Trump said. ‘They’re almost forcing me into the rallies. ‘Why isn’t he doing rallies two years early?’

‘But we’re going to do them soon. I think we should do a big one up here. Let’s do a big one. They love our rallies,’ Trump said in previewing a future rally in New Hampshire.

Some strategists and politicians have pointed to Trump’s slow-to-start campaign to back claims that he’s lost the spark or drive to get a second term in the White House – but the former president rebuked those claims.

‘The fake news… said when I announced that I just wanted to put my cards on the table. Like you know, when playing that very big game right now, the biggest game of all because it involves the country and the survival of the United States of America,’ Trump said to a group of New Hampshire Republicans in Salem.

‘But when I put the cards on – and then I said, ‘alright let’s go.’ They said, ‘he’s not campaigning.’ This is like about a month ago when I announced. I said, well, you know, ‘I’ve got two years.’

‘They said, ‘he’s not doing rallies, he’s not campaigning, maybe he’s lost that step.’ Well, I’m more angry now and I’m more committed now than I ever was,’ he insisted.

At his speech in the first-in-then-nation primary election state, Trump announced that outgoing chairman of the New Hampshire GOP Stephen Stepanek will come on as the senior advisor for his campaign in the Granite State.

With Stepanek on board, Trump says he actually has a chance to flip New Hampshire red.

Trump also said that if he isn’t successful in 2024, ‘that’s going to be the end’ and the ‘communists and Marxists’ would have won and will now rule the United States.

Trump announced at the event that he is brining on outgoing chairman of the New Hampshire GOP Stephen Stepanek (right) as the senior advisor for his campaign in the Granite State

‘He’s going to help us make sure we have a win in the Granite State in 2024,’ Trump said of Stepanek. ‘We stopped the communists, we stopped the Marxists, if we don’t stop them this time, I think that’s going to be the end.’

‘Everyone in this room shares the one key mission – we’re going to defeat Joe Biden and the radical Democrats,’ the former president said. ‘These are radical left people. I think in many cases they are Marxists and Communists. I used to say that seldom, and now I say that all the time.’

Trump spent a considerable amount of time pointing to Biden’s failures, and said it makes him feel like every day is the April 1 jokester holiday April Fools.

Among the listed failures included the disastrous mishandling of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, which was widely criticized. He also mentioned the Defund Police movement leading to massive crime spikes, as well as migrant policies allowing drug smuggling and human trafficking to pour over the border. 

‘We have people in the midst of the greatest crime wave in history that want to defund the police. That’s April Fools, isn’t it, right?’ Let’s defund the police.’ You can’t even get your car – you go to New York, nobody ever gets prosecuted,’ Trump accused.

‘I’m the only one they go after. It’s true,’ he said to massive laughter. ‘Nobody gets prosecuted, they go after me.’

As part of his attack lines against the current president, Trump brought his son Hunter Biden into his remarks.

Specifically, Trump questioned when President Biden would finally ‘get mad’ at his son for dropping off a laptop at a repair shop that had ‘every crime you’ve ever committed’ on it. 

‘At what point does the father [Biden] get angry? Like, ‘this kid is not working out for me,’ Trump said in reference to Hunter, 52.

When reimagining a hypothetical conversations between the Biden father-son duo, Trump said that the president would say: ‘What’s on the laptop son?’

To which Hunter would reply: ‘Every crime you’ve ever committed, pa,’ according to the former president.

Trump urged Americans to ‘be careful’ with the ‘fragile’ United States.

‘It’s crazy – this is a crazy world we’re living in,’ Trump said. ‘And we have to be very careful because we have a very fragile country – this is a very fragile place.’