Former President Donald Trump on Saturday accused President Joe Biden of using the White House “as a cash machine” during a July 4-themed rally in South Carolina.
“Joe Biden is corrupt and Joe Biden is a compromised president,” Trump said, as he described Hunter Biden’s threatening WhatsApp text message to a Chinese businessman, in which he said his father was in the room and expecting action.
“He’s being paid off just like a common criminal gets paid off – just in a more sophisticated manner and in much larger numbers.”
“Joe Biden’s policy is China first; my policy is very simple: America first,” the presumptive GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race declared.
Sporting his usual red “Make America Great Again” cap, a dark jacket, but no tie, a tough-talking Trump drew loud cheers and chants of “We love Trump!” throughout a 75-minute speech before an estimated crowd of 30,000.
He sarcastically insisted the United States is “on a course towards World War III” under Biden – and boasted the country needs his type of leadership to keep Americans safe. He also claimed that, if elected to a second presidency, he had the type of clout to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in a day.
Trump also used the rally to take credit for a series of Supreme Court decisions this week championed by the right, saying his three conservative judicial appointments while president were instrumental in striking down affirmative action programs at colleges and Biden’s federal student loan forgiveness program, as well as backing a Christian web designer’s refusal to work on wedding sites celebrating same-sex couples.
“Isn’t that great?” he boasted.
“Not to mention the fact that one year ago they ruled against Roe vs. Wade, something they said would never happen, [and] … moving this issue [of legalized abortion] back to the states where legal scholars and all others think it should be,” he continued.
The rowdy crowd swarmed the streets of the tiny town of Pickens to see Trump — who made its Independence Day celebration the center of his campaign effort in the early-voting state’s 2024 primary. Thousands lined up at least four hours earlier to score better views of the festivities.
Although the rowdy crowd warmly greeted Trump, they rained boos and catcalls on their home-state Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, as he sought to praise Trump during a hurried 5-minute warm-up speech.
“Calm down for a second … I was born in this county,” Graham pleaded amid jeers and calls of “traitor!”
Trump remains hugely popular in rural Pickens, in the northwest corner of the state, which will conduct the South’s first presidential primary next year — with two South Carolina Republicans, former Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, on the ballot as well.
Graham, an on-again, off-again Trump ally, begged his own donors to give cash to Trump in the wake of his April indictment by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg — but his past criticism of Trump’s policies and demeanor continues to rankle the former president’s most devoted supporters.