Donald Trump's circus arrived in the quiet town of Rock Hill, South Carolina, this Friday afternoon, with all the equipment: the streets blocked and traffic jams, the Secret Service snipers on the roof of the basketball court at Winthrop University, where he was supposed to be hawkers of MAGA merchandise in all its varieties and the fans who lined up for hours to secure a spot. It is, after all, the former president and candidate's big show to return to the White House as he walks through one of those places where nothing ever happens and suddenly receives a visit from one of the most famous people on the planet.
Trump owed the state at least one final visit before the South Carolina primary this Saturday. In this Saturday's election, he will face Nikki Haley, the only consistent competitor of the 13, who dared to challenge the former president for the Republican Party throne while he appeared briefly vulnerable. Haley, who met her supporters throughout the week in certainly more modest and less rowdy groups, was born in this corner of the southern United States and served as its governor between 2011 and 2017, until the then-tycoon appointed her President of the United States and ambassador to the United Nations. Despite this pedigree, she has the upper hand: polls give Trump a lead of almost 35 points over her.
At the sports center, which seats just over six thousand, at least a tenth of the seats were unoccupied, although the speaker on stage insisted that people had been left outside because they were frustrated at not being allowed entry. It was just one of the many lies and half-truths he spewed during his just over two-hour speech, which was broadly consistent with what he had offered in recent months, except that he took the opportunity to join in The subject of the same week: the controversial Alabama Supreme Court decision that threatens to upend the practice of in vitro fertilization in that state and possibly the entire country. There, seven of the nine judges voted Monday to consider frozen babies as “children.”
A few hours before the rally, Trump posted the following message on his Truth social network, with his usual emphatic use of capital letters: “Like the VAST MAJORITY of Americans, including the VAST MAJORITY of Americans.” “As Republicans, As Conservatives, Christians, and Pro-life Americans, I strongly support making in vitro fertilization available to couples trying to have a child.” In Rock Hill, he called on the Alabama Congress to “quickly find a solution to make it available.” of the state's proceedings after many of the Republican Party's top leaders tried all week to distance themselves from the unpopular court decision.
Tim Scott's blind support
The other big news of the afternoon was that African-American Senator for South Carolina, Tim Scott, warmed up the crowds awaiting the arrival of the big protagonist. Scott was one of the Republicans who filed to be his party's nominee for the White House, and since he dropped out of the race in which Trump unleashed the usual series of insults and humiliations that he reserves for his opponents, The The senator has become a hooligan of the former president, sometimes to the point of blushing.
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In the increasingly heated debates over who will join him as his vice-presidential candidate, Scott is beginning to sound strong because of the supposed influence his choice could have on the African-American voter who delivered the victory. to Joe Biden in 2020, and that he is now frustrated with the results and Biden's performance. Other possible names for the position include Ohio Senator JD Vance, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. The three spent Friday at the Conservative Action Political Conference, held each year near Washington. It used to be a meeting of ideas about the future of the Republican Party, but has recently become a meeting at the pinnacle of the most uncritical Trumpism.
Beyond these novelties, Trump's campaign rally in South Carolina was marked by many of the keynote speaker's obsessions and manias. In an erratic speech full of repetition, he said that his presidency had been a total triumph and that Biden's had been the absolute disaster. He attacked transgender people and the teaching of America's racist past in schools. He once again insisted that the 2020 election was “rigged,” he called the four trials before him “bullshit” in which he is accused of 91 crimes, he accused immigrants of being murderers and gangsters, and he promised a new departure to the USA Spirit (the widely used Make America Great Again) if he is re-elected on November 5th. Because Trump has his sights firmly set on this date and not this Saturday's primaries, which he believes were won by a landslide. In one of his most famous outbursts due to memories of his past as a reality TV star, he exclaimed, “Joe Biden, you're fired!”
Shortly after the rally, American organizations advocating for women's reproductive freedom responded to the former president's comments on in vitro fertilization by recalling that Trump was the president who appointed three of the six conservative Supreme Court justices Court of Washington appointed a majority who voted in 2021 to overturn the precedent of Roe v. Wade ruling, which granted federal protection to the right to abortion in 1973. “Donald Trump will say anything to get re-elected, but voters know they can’t trust him.” He has repeatedly lied and changed his mind about his stance on reproductive freedom. “Trump and Republicans across the country saw the swift and immediate reaction to his hypocrisy, and now Trump is afraid,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement.
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