Summerville, S.C.- Donald Trump didn’t have much convincing to do as he spoke to a crowd of supporters Monday during a re-election rally at a boat manufacturing facility in Dorchester County. Many wore shirts and pins with Trump’s mugshot reading, “wanted for president”.
The former president thanked Gov. Henry McMaster for his unwavering support as well as several South Carolina politicians in the audience who’d just announced their endorsement, including S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson and Secretary of State Mark Hammond.
“With their help, we’re going to win the South Carolina primary by a lot,” Trump said.
Trump then launched into a speech attacking President Joe Biden, his policies and the economy.
He also made promises about what he would do if re-elected president like deport undocumented immigrants, get rid of the federal Department of Education and ban gender affirming surgery for minors.
He said beginning “day one”, he would pull federal funding from certain schools.
“Any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto the heads of our children,” Trump said.
It’s the kind of message Cyndi Roberts of Colleton County waited to hear. She’s the county’s chapter chair for the group “Moms for Liberty”, an organization that says it defends parental rights, but the Southern Poverty Law Center has listed as extremist.
Roberts said, for her, there is one issue that stands above the rest.
“It’s the transgender, the LGBTQ in our schools as far as the indoctrination is concerned,” she said.
Roberts has long supported Trump and will do so again, even over homegrown rivals former Gov. Nikki Haley and U.S. Senator Tim Scott. It’s not their time she said.
As for the indictments against Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents and trying to turn over the 2020 election, he briefly addressed and dismissed them.
“Every time we get a good poll, we get indicted,” he said.
Michael Radhs, who moved to the Lowcountry from Wisconsin more than a decade ago, has Trump’s mugshot pinned to his chest. He believes the 2020 election was rigged and sees nothing wrong with the January 6th U.S. Capitol riots.
“I wish I’d gone,” Radhs said. “That’s our house. We have the right to take that back.”
Radhs said he would never vote for Haley or Scott because they’re politicians. The Republican rivals call the Lowcountry home, but polls show Trump has large leads over both.
Before speaking in Summerville Monday, Trump also stopped at his campaign office in North Charleston as well as the Palmetto State Armory.
