Former US president Donald Trump has marked a return to the large-scale rallies of his previous presidential campaigns, speaking to thousands gathered in the streets of a small South Carolina city ahead of the July 4th holiday.
Speaking to a roaring crowd on Saturday, Mr Trump said: “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be to kick off the Fourth of July weekend than right here on Main St, with thousands of hardworking South Carolina patriots who believe in God, family and country.”
It was not immediately clear how many people had gathered in the streets of downtown Pickens, a small city in South Carolina’s conservative Upstate of around 3,400 residents.
Law enforcement officials told some media outlets that around 15,000 people had gathered by 11am, two hours before Mr Trump’s remarks.
The heavily Republican area is a popular one for party hopefuls as they aim to attract support for South Carolina’s first-in-the-South presidential primary.
In recent months, other candidates including Florida governor Ron DeSantis, former US vice president Mike Pence and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have all held events in the Upstate, as well as the two South Carolinians in the race: former governor Nikki Haley and senator Tim Scott.
But none drew a crowd like Mr Trump, whose appearance effectively shuttered Pickens’ quintessential southern downtown.
Contrasted with his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, which drew thousands to rallies in states across the country, Mr Trump’s 2024 effort has been markedly different.
Earlier this year, instead of addressing voters in a gymnasium or airplane hangar, Mr Trump held his first South Carolina campaign event inside the Statehouse in Columbia, rolling out his state leadership team at an invitation-only gathering in an ornate lobby between the House and Senate chambers.
In other states, the former president has focused his efforts on smaller events, including a series of speeches before state party organisations, as he works to bolster his standing with delegates and local officials.
This was only Mr Trump’s second large rally of the 2024 campaign. In March, he rallied in Waco, Texas, disparaging the prosecutors then investigating him on hush-money charges — on which he was later indicted — and predicting his vindication.
A planned outdoor rally in Iowa in May was cancelled due to tornado warnings.
The rallies are also expensive to put on, although Mr Trump has continued to bring in millions in fundraising, after both the New York indictment and also federal charges related to his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House.
In a broad Republican field that has continued to grow, Mr Trump’s campaign has pointed to polls showing him with a considerable lead over his rivals, despite a campaign schedule that is far less robust than many of his rivals.
He has also given frequent media interviews and appeared at many of the multi-candidate events of the primary season so far, including this past week’s Moms for Liberty gathering in Philadelphia.
