Former President Donald Trump is working hard at once again becoming commander-in-chief. On Thursday (April 27), he campaigned at the DoubleTree hotel, in the same ballroom where Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke two weeks ago in Manchester, NH. In a typical Trump playbook, he went on the offensive, blaming the current administration and other officials for the state of the union today.
“When I left office, we handed Joe Biden the fastest economic recovery ever recorded – all with no inflation,” Trump said. “He took that booming economy, and he promptly blew it to shreds.” Is he right?
As Liberty Nation Economics Editor Andrew Moran wrote, “Looking back to February 2021, it is challenging to find much in the way of positive outcomes from the current administration. Is it any surprise that a record number of Americans are pessimistic about the present economic landscape?” He added: “The results of the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey are out, and the data do not shine a positive light on the chief executive’s record. The poll found that 69% of the public maintains negative views about the Biden economy, an all-time high in the survey’s 17 years.”
Earlier this week, Biden formally announced his re-election campaign and Trump was quick to mock the president’s election bid. “We are going to crush Joe Biden at the ballot box, and we are going to settle our unfinished business.”
Although he hasn’t officially announced a presidential run, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will likely be Trump’s biggest competition for the GOP nominee. A University of New Hampshire poll that was released last week showed the former president having a 20-point advantage (42% to 22%). In January, those results were reversed with DeSantis at 42% and Trump at 30%.
Matthew Bartlett, co-founder of the NH-based public relations firm Darby Field Advisors as well as a former congressional and campaign aide suggests candidates waiting so long to declare their presidential intentions might have damaged their chances. He called it a “historic miscalculation” to let Trump run unopposed for so long. “The conventional wisdom was that he would implode, explode, fade away, or some thought he might even get bored and drop out,” Bartlett said, speaking to NBC News. “Other campaigns are now playing catch-up and giving themselves a very short runway to try and land the plane.” When it comes to voters, he added:
“They are not looking for a candidate to have a beer with, they are looking for a candidate that will break a beer bottle over the opponent’s head. Right now, Trump is that person.”
Trump took NH Governor Chris Sununu to task for not running for Senate in 2022 against Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan, who defeated Republican Don Bolduc, whom Trump had endorsed. “He could’ve really made an impact,” Trump said. “He could’ve run for the Senate. He probably would’ve easily won because of the family name, would’ve won. And that would have been a tremendous thing. Instead, he wants to play games with running for president.” He added that Sununu is a “nasty guy.”
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said last month that he is “definitely thinking about running” for the 2024 presidential election. He’s “got a big mouth – that’s all he’s got,” Trump said of the Republican lawmaker. The former president noted how Christie was only polling around 1%, “Which by the way is substantially better than he did seven years ago on the same stage against me right here in New Hampshire.”
(Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
The Don loves to hand out nicknames to his opponents, but during his speech, he said it’s time to get rid of the “hidin’ Biden” moniker. “I will be retiring the name ‘Crooked’ from Hillary Clinton and her moniker, and I’m going to give her a new name, I don’t know, like maybe ‘Lovely Hillary’ or ‘Beautiful Hillary,’ but I’m going to retire the name ‘Crooked’ because he will be known from now on as ‘Crooked Joe Biden,’” Trump announced, saying it was more appropriate for the president. He added, there has “never been anyone in the history of American politics so crooked or dishonest as Joe Biden,” saying the commander-in-chief is “grossly incompetent.”
Some of Trump’s other infamous nicknames include “Lyin’ Ted” for Ted Cruz (R-TX), “Lil’ Marco,” for Marco Rubio (R-FL), and “one-in-thirty-eight Kasich” for John Kasich (R-OH) referring to his miserable performance in the primaries.
Trump pounded home his view that the current administration is wrong for the country. “The choice in this election is now between strength or weakness, between success or failure, between safety or anarchy, between peace or conflict, and prosperity or catastrophe.”