SELMA, N.C. — Former President Donald Trump teased a crowd in North Carolina on Saturday about running for a second term in 2024 as he urged voters to elect “America First Republicans” this year.
Trump was in Selma for his “Save America” rally to promote the Republican candidates he’s endorsed for the May 17 primary elections, including Rep. Ted Budd for U.S. Senate and Rep. Madison Cawthorn and Bo Hines for U.S. House.
Throughout the rally, Trump and other speakers made the unfounded claim that the presidential election was stolen in 2020 as a reason he may try to reclaim the White House in 2024.
“The truth is I ran twice, I won twice,” Trump said during his hourlong speech in front of a crowd of more than 1,000 people at The Farm at 95, an outdoor venue in Selma, located about 30 miles southeast of Raleigh. “I did much better the second time than I did the first and now we may have to do it again. Is there anybody here who’d like to see me run again?”
Trump said the first step was to elect conservative Republicans in North Carolina and across the nation to regain control of Congress in this year’s midterm elections.
“This is the year we’re going to take back the House,” Trump said. “We’re going to take back the Senate, and we’re going to take back America, and in 2024, most importantly, we are going to take back our beautiful, beautiful, beautiful White House.”
Democrats said Trump’s visit would ramp up the “chaos” in the primary for Republicans. “As the Republicans’ toxic agenda continues to unravel, the choice could not be more clear: Republicans’ health care and economic plan is gutting the health care North Carolinians count on, raising premiums, and hiking taxes,” Floyd McKissick, first vice chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, said in a statement.
“Budd and the rest of Trump’s handpicked candidates will be a rubber stamp to the GOP’s agenda of tax hikes and raised premiums if Republicans win control of Congress.”
Trump’s endorsements in North Carolina have put him at odds with some state and local Republican leaders who’ve backed other candidates in competitive primaries.
How well Trump’s endorsed candidates do could show how much influence he still has ahead of any presidential run in 2024.
Trump brought Budd and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson to the podium during his speech. Trump called Robinson “a conservative warrior” and “a brilliant guy” who “is going places.”
Earlier Saturday, Robinson announced that he’s endorsing Budd for the Senate seat being vacated by Richard Burr.
Budd returned the favor on Saturday, calling Robinson “our next governor of North Carolina.”
Robinson may run for governor in 2024. Trump was effusive in his praise of Budd, saying he had a 17-point lead in the polls over Pat McCrory.
Trump mocked McCrory, calling him the “bathroom governor” for his role in the controversy over whether people in North Carolina would be allowed to use a public restroom that doesn’t match their birth certificate.
Budd “will stand up for America first,” including for protection of Second Amendment gun rights, Trump said. “(Budd) has shown that he will stand up to the RINOs (Republican in name only),” Trump said. “You know we have some RINOs, you do know that. In many ways a bad RINO is worse than a Democrat.”
That message was echoed by Hines, who opened his speech Saturday by calling Trump “the greatest president in the history of the United States.” “Scripture tells us that God spits lukewarm Christians out of his mouth,” said Hines, who is running for the newly redrawn 13th Congressional District. “It’s high time the Republican Party started spitting lukewarm RINOs out of its mouth.”
Trump repeatedly attacked Biden and Democrats during his speech, saying that the nation was in danger of being “destroyed by lunatics” and “sick and radical politicians.”
Trump blamed the Biden administration for high gas places, rising inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Biden administration recently ended a public health rule that allows many asylum seekers to be turned away at the southern U.S. border.
Trump charged that the move will allow murderers, drug dealers and gang members to enter the country. “He is deliberately inciting a mob of millions and millions of foreign nationals to illegally infiltrate America’s borders, violate our laws, trample our sovereignty and settle in our country,” Trump said “Frankly, it’s an invasion.”
Education was a focus of Trump’s speech, saying that a GOP-controlled Congress should investigate the “collusion” between Democrats and teacher unions that he blamed for school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic “for no scientific reason whatsoever.”
Schools throughout the nation closed for an extended period during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Republican states were generally faster at reopening for in-person instruction.
“The irreversible harm that Democratic politicians did to our young people is unforgivable, and American voters will punish them at the ballot box this November,” Trump said.
