Presidential candidate Donald Trump picked up two influential endorsements in New Hampshire leading into the MAGA candidate’s mega-sized rally at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in Durham on Saturday.
Former Senate President Chuck Morse, now a gubernatorial candidate, and Elizabeth Girard, president of the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women, powered up the massive crowd in announcing their endorsements of the former president.
“You are here today because you’ve had enough. Am I right?” said Ms. Girard, charging up the already charged-up concert-like crowd.
“You’ve had enough of Biden’s America where American families can’t keep up with inflation, the crumbling housing market and gas prices,” she said. “You’ve had enough of the blatant disregard of our border security, politicians playing with the national debt like it’s Monopoly money, and those acting out of personal gain instead of in the best interest of the American people.”
Despite being held in one of the most liberal towns in New England, barely a seat was unoccupied at the state college’s 19,500 square foot Whittemore Center Arena. According to its website, the sports arena has a seating capacity of 7,500 for campaign events.
Former President Donald Trump draws a sold-out crowd at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H., on Dec. 16, 2023. Alice Giordano/The Epoch Times
Outside, a group who identified themselves as UNH students to The Epoch Times, chanted “free Palestine” as they displayed signs that included “No Hate on Campus Dump Trump.” Some of the signs included attacks on Biden including one that read “Trump+Biden Both Support the Genocide of Palestinians.” One of the protesters told The Epoch Times the group represented “college students who hate Trump.” Another sign read “Free Palestine End All USA Aid To Israel!”
Several of the protesters held signs that used the state college’s athletics team name, Wildcats, to promote anti-Israel sentiment, including “Wildcats Say: Free Palestine End Apartheid. Fascists Get Off Campus.” One student also held a sign that said “Make America Gay Again'' in mockery of Trump’s fabled Make America Great Again slogan that gives him his MAGA candidate nickname.
Although the protest was held outside, many of the participants were wearing masks. The state-run college came under fire during the COVID pandemic for keeping mask and vaccine mandates in place after they were lifted for all other government entities in New Hampshire.
Inside, a maskless crowd, which also included throngs of college students holding signs in support of President Trump, cheered loudly to such promises by him to defund any schools that implement another vaccine and mask mandate, as was done during the peak of COVID.
Cheers also erupted when President Trump pledged that “on day one” of his presidency, he would also end funding to any school pushing critical race theory and gender theory.
Another crowd pleaser was President Trump’s proposed Reciprocal Trade Act, which would give the president authority to levy a reciprocal tariff on China and other countries in the same amount as any tariffs they imposed on the United States.
But the arena of Trumpsters went the most wild in roaring support of President Trump when he re-dubbed President Joe Biden’s fossil fuel alternatives program Green New Deal as “The Green New Scam.”
“I do like that term. I just came up with that,” he said. “It will forever be known as the Green New Scam. I like that.”
As he has done throughout his campaign, President Trump took his usual pokes at his GOP rivals, but especially against former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as U.N. ambassador under his administration.
He mocked media reports that termed Ms. Haley’s single-digit increases in polls as a “surge.”
“Where’s the surge?” he asked, pointing out that he was leading her as much as 50 percent in national surveys while she remained in the teens.
He also ridiculed New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu’s recent endorsement of Ms. Haley, saying, “He’s endorsed someone who can’t win, who has no chance of winning.”
While speculation escalates over who President Trump will choose as his vice president, the former president made no mention of it. Some have suggested he would consider Ms. Haley, including his own daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
Ms. Haley has been asked about the prospect. Last week, when an audience member at a campaign event in New Hampshire asked if she would consider being a running mate to President Trump, she responded that “she was in it to win it,” not to take “second place.”
In an interview before President Trump took the stage in Durham, his New Hampshire campaign co-chair Lou Gargiulo—also among the event’s opening speakers—told The Epoch Times that “nothing would surprise him in politics,” but said he expected President Trump would lean more toward someone like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
A group of anti-Trump protesters gather for the former president's campaign appearance at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H., on Dec. 16, 2023. Alice Giordano/The Epoch Times
Mr. Gargiulo also responded to Florida Gov. and GOP rival Ron DeSantis’s charge that Mr. Trump would slow progress in advancing party objectives because he would be a lame-duck president since he can only serve one term.
“I say that being a lame duck might actually be an advantage for anyone. ... a person just entering the role—they will have to audition to run again, where [Trump] is not auditioning again,” said Mr. Gargiulo. “A lame duck president is not worried about what happens in three years in terms of courting donors and traveling around the country for the sake of getting votes.”
He also shared Mr. Trump’s assessment of Mr. Sununu’s endorsement of Ms. Haley, saying that the four-term governor is “not as popular” as he once was and might not carry the political clout he did during his first two terms. “I don’t dislike the governor, but I don’t think he carries the same level of credibility especially with Republicans so I don’t think it’s going to help her.”
