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WEST COLUMBIA, SC – President Trump pleaded Monday night with South Carolina Republicans to vote for Governor Henry McMaster in an election on Tuesday, warning the Conservatives that if the governor lost, his failure would be pinned on the president that they came to see.
Gathering a comfortable high school gym filled with supporters for one of his oldest sponsors, Mr. Trump said the media would present a McMaster defeat as a sign of his own weakness.
"They will say that Donald Trump suffered a major and major defeat in the great state of South Carolina, it was a humiliating defeat for Donald Trump, so please, take out your donkeys tomorrow and vote" he said under applause.
Mr. McMaster has failed to win the majority of votes in the Republican Primary this month and is engaged in a competitive race with John Warren, a first-time and former Marine candidate. Warren, 39, was late in the campaign, but grew with a series of attacks linking 71-year-old McMaster to the political status quo in a US capital. State that has been besieged by a sprawling investigation into corruption.
Mr. Trump's decision to invest directly in this race, a few hours before the opening of the polls, was the kind of risky maneuver that some politicians may not have taken, but, as he explained, he was repaying a debt to Mr. McMaster.
The president reminded potential voters that McMaster had been a dedicated supporter "from the beginning" – unlike those who, "after the defeat of nine people, they were with me."
But the president made little mention of the governor's 17-month term, saying little about issues specific to South Carolina or what Mr. McMaster had done for the state since Nikki R. Haley, that Mr. Trump has appointed ambassador to the United States. Nations.
Mr. Trump also showed no sensitivity on one of the largest employers in the state, BMW, complaining that the European Union "sends us BMW".
He testified to the governor's strength, tenacity and courteous manner, greeted his wife and let Mr. McMaster take the microphone to relax in a presidential embrace.
Referring to the summer storms that delayed the event and kept Mr. Trump's plane in the skies above the capital of South Carolina for more than an hour, Mr. McMaster Delighted the crowd by pointing out that once disembarked Air Force One, off the plane. "
As usual, however, Mr. Trump has used the vast majority of a 58-minute address to tell his 2016 win, ridicule his opponents and tell a rosy version of his presidency to date.
At what was ostensibly an event for Mr. McMaster, the President spoke as much of his contempt for late-night host Jimmy Fallon as the man on the ballot here Tuesday.
There were also references to his wife's health. Mr. Trump rejected speculation that the first lady would have had plastic surgery or would have given up. And he assured the crowd that his hair was his. (The oratorical break started with a question: "Anyone here is wearing a piece of hair?")
The Catskills-meets-Carolina improvisation was, of course, what members of the crowd were waiting for – and they responded with their own favorite standards: "build the wall", "lock it up" and a few laps vigorous boos to the media feather at one end of the basketball court.
If Mr. McMaster was bothered by the scornful speech centered on Trump, he did not show it. When Mr. Trump concluded, the governor returned to the beaming stage and flashing a commotion, in Trumpian's manner.
That Mr. Trump came at all – time lurking who instigated him to joke, "I've never taken a longer trip to South Carolina" – was a remarkable political gamble.
Mr. Trump's visit at the 11th hour of the suburban basketball court was almost entirely intended to make Mr. McMaster's loyalty, even though the president could not help but notice his humble surroundings by joking: "I said, 'Henry, I do not work gyms anymore. & # 39; "
With no vote in Congress and South Carolina firmly in the Republican column in the presidential elections, the governor can do little in return for the president.
And while Mr. Trump has proven himself fit to shoot down his opponents, he was burned before when he attempted to arrest other candidates, raising questions as to whether his popularity with Republican voters is transferable.
He went to Alabama and Pennsylvania to try to lift his party's candidates in special congressional elections, but only to see conservative electorates reject his favorite candidates. And when Mr. Trump visited Alabama last fall on behalf of Luther Strange, then a senator, who would lose the nomination to Roy S. Moore, Mr. Trump used similar wording about how the media of 39, information would carry the loss to the White House door.
But Mr McMaster was one of the first nationally elected Republicans to endorse Mr Trump, backing him even before Iowa issued the first votes of the 2016 campaign.
And the governor's campaign shared a poll with White House officials to assure them that McMaster was in a good position to win, Republicans who spoke under the guise of anonymity to discuss private conversations said. .
But we do not know how much Mr. Trump asked to return to a state that he gained 14 points two years ago.
He has been on a high political here recently. This month, a state legislator, Katie Arrington, The resigning representative Mark Sanford in the Republican primary after claiming that the veteran legislator was not sufficiently loyal to the president. Mr. Trump threw his support behind Mrs. Arrington on the day of the vote and repeatedly mocked Mr. Sanford ever since, even belittling him at a meeting of House Republicans. (Mr. Sanford was not there.)
And Mr. Trump did not have five minutes in his remarks Monday before he began to gloat over the loss of Mr. Sanford, noting that he "was not a big one. fan." (The president, however, slapped his punchline by referring to "Tallahassee" Trail "instead of" The Appalachian Trail ", the famous alibi of Mr. Sanford, then governor, had the habit of covering his extramarital adventure .)
The rally for Mr. McMaster was the second Trump administration event for the governor in recent days. Vice President Mike Pence joined McMaster on Saturday near Myrtle Beach, urging Republicans to repay the governor's loyalty to the president.
Mr. Trump's trip here was only his last stop of the campaign. He was in Nevada Saturday and will be in North Dakota on Wednesday. He is distinctly happier wrapped in the warm embrace of his most devoted supporters than trying to push legislation through a Congress whose divisions between moderate and conservative Republicans compete between those between the two parties.
Arrived at the 46th minute of his remarks, he told the audience that he had prepared a speech prepared for teleprompters. "It does not bother you that I do not use them all night, is not it?" Asked he.
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