Polling suggests the former President is one the favourites to win his party’s nomination (Picture: AP)
Former US president Donald Trump has kicked off his 2024 White House bid with a stop in New Hampshire before heading to South Carolina.
His appearance in early-voting states marks the first campaign appearances since he announced his latest run more than two months ago.
Trump’s campaign has already drawn major controversy.
He faced backlash after he had dinner with Holocaust-denying white nationalist Nick Fuentes and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who had made a series of antisemitic comments.
Trump also was widely mocked for selling a series of digital trading cards that pictured him as a superhero, a cowboy and an astronaut, among others.
However, early polling shows he is one the favourites to win his party’s nomination.
Trump told party leaders at the New Hampshire Republicans’ annual meeting in Salem: ‘We’re starting right here as a candidate for president.
‘I’m more angry now and I’m more committed now than I ever was.’
Trump fans listen on as the former President speaks during the New Hampshire Republican State Committee 2023 annual meeting (Picture: AP)
Many wore ‘Keep America Great’ baseball caps (Picture: AP)
Trump faced a sluggish start to his campaign that left many questioning his commitment to running again.
But in recent weeks, his backers have reached out to political operatives and elected officials to secure support for Mr Trump at a critical point in the run.
In New Hampshire, Mr Trump promoted his campaign agenda, including immigration and crime, and said his policies would be the opposite of President Joe Biden’s.
He cited the Democrats’ move to change the election calendar, costing New Hampshire its lead-off primary spot, and accused Mr Biden, a fifth-place finisher in New Hampshire in 2020, of ‘disgracefully trashing this beloved political tradition’.
Trump is at the centre of a number of criminal investigations (Picture: AP)
Newly announced chairman of the New Hampshire GOP Chris Ager, right, speaks as former President Donald Trump and outgoing New Hampshire GOP Chairman Stephen Stepanek look on (Picture: AP)
‘I hope you’re going to remember that during the general election,’ Trump told party members.
The former President remains his party’s only declared 2024 presidential candidate.
But potential challengers, including Florida governor Ron DeSantis, former vice president Mike Pence and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who was Mr Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, are expected to get their campaign underway in the coming months.
Trump is also the subject of a series of criminal investigations, including one into the discovery of hundreds of documents with classified markings and federal examinations of his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
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Polling suggests the former President is one the favourites to win his party’s nomination.
