COLUMBIA, S.C.–People nodded their heads, agreeing with former President Donald Trump as he reminded them of the economic conditions they enjoyed while he was in office.
Gasoline was $1.87 per gallon. Families had $6,000 more, on average, in their pockets. Homebuyers took advantage of record-low mortgage rates, under 3 percent.
Now, Mr. Trump says, because of policies that President Joe Biden put in place, gasoline typically costs $3 to $4 per gallon and, at times, has climbed as high as $7 in some places. Average family income has dropped by $7,400. And mortgage rates are now approaching a “brutal” level, 7 percent.
Yet, at the same time, the Biden family has reaped millions of dollars from foreign sources, Mr. Trump said, citing bank records that congressional investigators revealed. Mr. Biden has brushed off allegations of bribery and influence-peddling as nonsense.
Speaking to a full house at a South Carolina GOP fundraiser on Aug. 5, Mr. Trump declared: “Crooked Joe Biden cares only about enriching his own family…I care about enriching your family.”
Consecutive Record-Breakers
That was the largest crowd in the event’s 56-year history, State GOP Chair Drew McKissick told the audience, whose members were decked out in suits, tuxedos, cocktail dresses and sparkly gowns.Mr. Trump’s South Carolina appearance marked the second day in a row that a state GOP reported record-breaking crowds coming to hear the former president’s message.
On Aug. 4, the former president drew 2,700 people to a dinner that raised $1.2 million for the Alabama GOP.
Mr. Trump won Alabama and South Carolina by wide margins in both of his prior presidential runs.
His GOP speeches in those two states come on the heels of Mr. Trump’s not guilty plea to his third criminal indictment in Washington on Aug. 3.
Several South Carolina attendees told The Epoch Times they believe Mr. Trump has proven that he champions America and her average citizens.
Legal Troubles Multiply Support
Many supporters have expressed their unwavering commitment. Opinion polls have shown support for the former president has increased with each succeeding set of charges.He was first indicted in March on New York business-records accusations. A federal indictment related to classified documents followed in Florida.
The latest indictment, filed Aug. 1 in Washington, accuses him of unlawful acts while opposing the results of the 2020 election, which named Mr. Biden the winner.
A senior adviser to Mr. Trump, Andre Bauer, told The Epoch Times that mainstream news reports downplay or ignore “the depth of the love that he has for this country.” That, Mr. Bauer said, is what motivates Mr. Trump more than his ego. People who flock to Mr. Trump’s rallies appreciate hearing that message, unfiltered, Mr. Bauer said.
Involved in politics all his life, Mr. Bauer served as a South Carolina lawmaker and lieutenant governor, then worked for a time as a CNN political analyst.
“If you listen to Donald Trump or you listen to his accomplishments from someone who’s fair and unbiased, you can’t help but support what he’s done,” he said.
Bidenomics vs. Trump Policies
Mr. Trump devoted much of his 80-minute, Saturday-night speech to two topics that rank among the most important in his reelection campaign.Signaling a shift in his messaging, Mr. Trump delivered a detailed dissection of the “disastrous” effects of Mr. Biden’s economic policies, known as “Bidenomics,” intertwined with energy policies that affect people’s daily lives.
Meanwhile, the former president assailed Mr. Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) for prosecuting him in the thick of a presidential campaign. Mr. Trump is the Democrat president’s chief political adversary.
Mr. Trump sees the prosecutions as part of an orchestrated attempt to thwart his efforts to oust the Democrat president from the White House in the 2024 election. Mr. Biden denies steering the DOJ’s investigations of Mr. Trump toward any particular outcome.
Regardless of how Mr. Trump’s legal and political battles play out, speech attendee Travis Grimsley, 44, said: “That man will go down in history as the most beloved president in America. There has never been a middle-class following like this for any candidate until Donald Trump.”
He sees Mr. Trump as “genuine.” He and his wife, Malary, 36, paused to talk to The Epoch Times after Mr. Trump’s speech. The couple drove about 40 miles, coming from Newberry County, where they are rearing six children and running a business that relies on a half-dozen trucks. On both fronts, the Grimsleys say they’re feeling the negative effects of Bidenomics.
“Gas is $3.54 a gallon, and milk is almost $4 a gallon,” Mrs. Grimsley said. Her husband pointed out that fueling his business’ trucks cost $5,000 a month while Mr. Trump was in the White House. Under Mr. Biden’s administration, that bill skyrocketed to $12,000 a month, Mr. Grimsley said, as he and his wife grabbed armloads of Trump yard signs to hand out in Newberry County.
Real-Life Effects of Policies
Mr. Trump says Mr. Biden’s policies have produced higher everyday costs for Americans. He blames Mr. Biden for restricting oil and gas drilling and halting construction of new pipelines.Aiming to reduce consumption of fossil fuels, the Democrat president also has pushed alternative, expensive “green” energy sources and all-electric vehicles, asserting their environmental benefits. But Mr. Trump sees signs that Mr. Biden’s initiatives are hurting both the economy and the environment.
Striking a somber note, Mr. Trump said, “They’re destroying our shores, our oceans. They’re putting windmills all over the place in New Jersey… big, magnificent whales are being washed up on shore...It’s so sad to see, and everybody knows the reason.”
Mr. Trump said Mr. Biden’s policies are negatively affecting Americans’ daily lives, even with “little things,” such as water-flow regulators on household sinks and showers, Mr. Trump said.
Jokes About ‘Gorgeous’ Hair
Citing his own experience while showering, Mr. Trump, who sports an elaborate “comb-over” hairdo, elicited howls of laughter when he described stepping into the shower to shampoo his “gorgeous head of hair.”Mr. Trump, in a moment of comedic drama, raised his voice, saying that, while showering, he wants water to “pour down” from the showerhead. In a quiet voice, Mr. Trump then said that, with a regulator in place, water merely drips out.
Thus, a person is forced to stay in the shower way longer just to finish shampooing. Ridiculously, in the end, people probably consume just as much water as they would have used without adding a regulator, he said.
“So now you can go buy a new home–and you can’t wash your hands” because the water drips out so slowly, Mr. Trump lamented. That’s a small example of how Mr. Biden’s policies defy common sense, the former president said.
Trillions of Problems
Mr. Trump shifted to a much bigger picture: the nation’s multitrillion-dollar deficit, which he had planned to tackle by tapping into America’s vast natural resources.“We have more oil–I call it ‘liquid gold’…under our feet than any other nation in the world, by far,” Mr. Trump said. “We were going to supply all of Europe…we were going to make so much money. We‘d pay off debt, and then we’d lower taxes again.”
But instead, Mr. Biden’s administration took over after a “rigged election” and decided to stop drilling for oil and gas, Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Biden and his allies insist that the election was fair, despite concerns about irregularities in multiple “swing states.”
The former president denounced Mr. Biden’s “socialist spending spree,” apparently referring to the $1.2 trillion bipartisan “infrastructure” act that Mr. Biden signed last year.
Economic Wizardry
Upon election to a second term, Mr. Trump said he would “fight to implement major spending reductions by restoring the President’s historic impoundment power, which will enable us to cut massive amounts of waste and stupidity…and return billions of dollars to the U.S. Treasury.”As the crowd roared its approval, Mr. Trump promised economic wizardry.
“It’s going to be drill, baby, drill! And you’re gonna see prices come plummeting, and you’re gonna see inflation disappear,” he said.
Mr. Trump predicted: “The Biden economic bust will be replaced with the historic Trump economic boom, we’re gonna have a boom… beyond what we had” during his first term.
‘A Shame’
Yet, as he heads into primary elections that begin in January, Mr. Trump faces scheduling campaign events around court appearances and meetings with attorneys.Charging one’s political opponent with criminal accusations is done in Third-World countries, not America, Mr. Trump said, noting that even some people who dislike him admit that it seems wrong.
“Isn’t it terrible that a political opponent, though, can haphazardly charge you with a fake crime in the middle of your campaign in order to interfere with your time, your money, your message–and there is nothing you can do, in theory, to stop this travesty of justice?” Mr. Trump said. “Isn’t that a shame?”
Mr. Trump said the DOJ and other prosecutors could have brought charges against him well before the campaign started.
All of the cases filed against Mr. Trump involve situations that occurred at least two years ago.
He claims that authorities purposely pulled the trigger after he became a dominant force in the campaign.
The charges against him are tantamount to “another Russia, Russia, Russia hoax,” Mr. Trump said, referring to bogus claims that he colluded with Russians to influence the 2016 election.
In May, Special Counsel John Durham found that the FBI never should have begun its investigation of Mr. Trump.
The whole case was based on unverified research that Mr. Trump’s political opponent, Hillary Clinton, funded.
‘Ridiculosity’
The latest accusations against Mr. Trump say he went too far in his attempts to challenge the 2020 election results, which declared Mr. Biden, the winner.“Only a party that cheats in elections would make it illegal to question those elections,” he said. “They don’t go after the people that rigged the election. They go after the people that want to find out what the hell happened. It’s a disgrace.”
As a practicing attorney for 43 years, including four years as a federal prosecutor, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster shared his assessment of the charges against Mr. Trump.
“I thought the first indictment took the cake for ridiculosity. I really did,” Mr. McMaster said in a speech introducing the former president. “I thought, ‘Nothing can top this’–until the next one came. And then the next indictment.”
Any legitimate case, civil or criminal, “must be based on the law and the facts; these cases against Donald Trump do neither,” the governor said.
America Changed Dramatically
Mr. McMaster said he felt privileged to nominate Mr. Trump to be selected as the GOP’s 2016 presidential nominee at the party’s national convention in Cleveland.After Mr. Trump won the presidency, he enacted policies that paved the way for South Carolina to complete many infrastructure improvements, Mr. McMaster said, putting the state on an upward trajectory.
Because of Mr. Trump’s policies, “America was respected and admired all over the world as long as he was in office,” Mr. McMaster said.
“Then came the most controversial contested election in American history, in 2020,” the governor said, resulting in Mr. Biden taking office in January 2021.
“Things began to change and unravel dramatically,” Mr. McMaster said. Suddenly, Republican governors had to spend half their time fighting with Mr. Biden’s administration to get anything done.
America changed for the worse, he said, as “leftist fantasies” took hold, spawning attacks on “moral truths and the family” he said.
Outrageously, the government unleashed 93 U.S. attorneys nationwide to coordinate with the FBI and investigate parents who raised concerns at school board meetings, Mr. McMaster said.
“Our global authority was diminished, and our security was and is threatened,” he said, as “rampant inflation” spread.
Calling all Warriors
Then he shifted to a message of hope.“Well, is a new day coming. Because, ladies and gentlemen, we have a leader. We have a powerful, experienced, strong leader with a clear vision of America and the greatness of our people,” he said.
Mr. McMaster described Mr. Trump as “the leader who stood tall for four years, protected our borders, rebuilt our economic might and ignited a new prosperity for all Americans…including those of us in South Carolina.”
But he said that leader, Mr. Trump, cannot do this without help.
“We must do our part. We must realize that we are in a war for the future of our country. And we must win it,” he said, calling on “warriors” to step up.
Mr. Trump said that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has been a big help to him in many ways.
The former president acknowledged that Mr. Graham has, at times, stirred controversy. But he asked the crowd to thank him for his efforts to back Mr. Trump; the audience obliged and applauded.
That polite reaction contrasted with the sustained chorus of “boos” that nearly drowned out Mr. Graham at the former president’s massive rally last month in tiny Pickens, S.C., near Mr. Graham’s hometown.
Attendees of that rally told The Epoch Times that Mr. Graham upset them because he seemed inconsistent in his support of Mr. Trump. Mr. Graham appeared to back away from the 2020 election disputes after a number of election protesters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“He made you proud to be an American. He was unashamedly strong,” Mr. Graham said, adding, “It’s not about what he says he will do. It’s what he did. And he will do it again.”
Other attendees at the rally, such as Travis Grimsley, the Newberry entrepreneur and father of six, also pledged their support to Mr. Trump.
Despite all the attention on the indictments of Mr. Trump, Mr. Grimsley said the accusations remind him of a pattern he sees with his children.
“When one does something to get attention, the other one does something real quick, too; they don’t want to get left out. That’s the way this whole thing is shaking out,” Mr. Grimsley said. “I mean the timing, it’s just unreal. You got something comes out about Biden and the crime family, and then they indict Donald Trump.”
Mr. Trump’s detractors “can’t stand” seeing how much traction his “Make America Great Again” movement has gained, Mr. Grimsley said.
“Just common, basic America finally has a voice, and the people that don’t like it, they don’t know how to handle it,” he said. “And the people who’ve never had it, now that we have had it, we don’t know how to let it go.”
Mr. Grimsley acknowledges there are other good choices for president, including presidential hopeful Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), whom he has known for years.
“I love him to death,” Mr. Grimsley said. “But there’s only one Donald Trump, and he’s the only one who’s gonna fix the mess. Really, it’s as simple as that.”
