Former President Donald Trump’s MAGA rallies during the beginning of the Independence Day holiday are bringing Trump supporters out in massive numbers. Trump was in Philadelphia on Friday, before heading to South Carolina on Saturday.
Both Pennsylvania and South Carolina are key states in the upcoming 2024 election. Trump previously won Pennsylvania, and although he also carried South Carolina, two other Republicans are also campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination; former SC governor Nikki Haley and SC Senator Tim Scott.
This holiday weekend Trump seems to be touching base with grassroots voters while at the same time addressing key differences between himself and other Republicans campaigning for the 2024 nomination.
The Republican presidential candidate was in Philadelphia to attend the Moms for Liberty summit. While in town, he made a stop at Pat’s King of Steaks, a famous cheesesteak restaurant. Trump was met with a swarm of fans during his visit to the popular establishment. He took time to speak with some of his supporters, take pictures, and shake their hands, Daily Caller reports.
One Trump supporter, a black woman who was visibly excited to see him, posed next to him for a photo. After the photo, she turned around to Trump and expressed her excitement at seeing him, mentioning that her economic situation had improved during his presidency.
“My 401k misses you!” the woman shouted in a video shared across social media.
As Trump spoke at the Moms for Liberty summit, he praised the grassroots organization for its advocacy of parents’ rights and reaffirmed the importance of their work, while dismissing its critics, who label it as a “hate” group. “You’re not a threat to America, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to America,” Trump said, “You are joyful warriors, you are fierce, fierce patriots.”
During his speech, Trump outlined several policy positions, including his intention to ban transgender sex-change procedures for minors, a public school teacher tenure, and dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across government entities.
Trump stated that in his next term as president, he will sign an executive order to cut federal funding for any school, “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.” He called for direct election, and the firing, of school principals by parents.
Trump also addressed the vast difference between his platform and the current administration, and the necessity to stop the Democrat’s initiatives before it is too late. He emphasized his belief that the Democratic Party, led by President Joe Biden, poses a threat to the country and urged his supporters to rally together to vote them out of office in the 2024 election, The Federalist noted.
“Joe Biden and the Democrats are the threat to America. And together, we’re going to throw them out of office on Election Day 2024.”
Republican hopeful Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also spoke at the Moms for Liberty rally, using less feisty rhetoric. The group Moms for Liberty was founded in Florida in 2021 to fight local COVID school mask mandates and quarantine requirements and has become a force in conservative politics. DeSantis praised the group for “coming under attack by the left” saying the attacks are a “sign that we are winning this fight.”
DeSantis ran through his efforts in Florida to ban discussions of race and sexual identity in classrooms as well as certain books proclaiming the same from school libraries. He praised the group as a political force, saying that the “mama bears” are “ready to roll.”
DeSantis pledged to “fight the woke” if he were to secure the nomination.
After speaking in Pennsylvania, Trump repeated his rhetoric concerning Democrats and the Biden family the next day at his MAGA rally in Pickens, SC. Opening Speaker Marjorie Taylor Greend (R-Ga.) gave details about congressional actions concerning current President Joe Biden and impeachment initiatives as well as reiterated the conservative congressional reactions to the attacks against former President Trump.
Trump went over points of those attacks and made left no question as to his innocence in the allegations, past and present. He also noted the Democratic corruption in the current administration and the state of the world political scene, saying that world war looms, and he is the man to stop that from happening.
Trump reiterated that a presidential win would not be his first, as the crowd in Pickens roared “Third!” Trump pointed out the existence of his relationships with the world leaders and the fact that he has a successful history in dealing with them, as well as the fiascos in world politics under the Democrats and Joe Biden’s administration.
In a call-in interview with the Pickens newspaper, the Pickens County Courier, Trump said, “These are the people I love. We’ll break some records. We’ll break them together.”
In Philadelphia, AP reported that roughly 200 LGBTQ+ activists protested the gathering, but in Pickens there were no reports of activists at the Trump rally.
