Appearing in Atkinson, N.H., the day after his 30-point victory in the Iowa caucuses, former President Donald Trump accepted the support of his far-right former rival Vivek Ramaswamy, who declared “we are in the middle of a war in this country.”
“Right now we need a commander-in-chief who will lead us to victory in this war. That’s what we need in this country,” Ramaswamy said, framing the conflict as between “those of us who love the United States of America and a fringe minority who hates this country and what we stand for.”
“It’s a 1776 moment right now,” Ramaswamy added.
Ramaswamy dropped out of the race on Monday night, finishing in a distant fourth in Iowa after campaigning for nearly a year on the promise he would carry on Trump’s mantle. Trump won 51% of the vote in Iowa, followed by 21.2% for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and 19.1% for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, according to the Associated Press. Ramaswamy finished with 7.7%.
Despite his poor finish, Trump was happy to accept the Ohio entrepreneur’s endorsement and let him speak for roughly eight minutes as he tried to shore up support in New Hampshire, the second state in the GOP primary process. While Trump still holds a commanding 13-point lead in the state on average, according to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight, Haley is closer to him in New Hampshire than anywhere else. There has been no available public polling since Monday night’s Iowa caucuses.
The New Hampshire primary is Tuesday, Jan. 23.
After he finished his remarks by predicting a landslide victory in New Hampshire, the pair embraced and spoke away from the microphone for a moment as the crowd began chanting “VP!” Trump has hinted he has already decided who he wants as vice president, but has not yet said who. But Trump said on Tuesday that Ramaswamy — who emerged from obscurity as a right-wing commentator to reach debate stages with governors, senators and a vice president — would be included in his future plans.
“He’s a fantastic guy. He’s really got something that’s very special because he started off with a zippo and he ended up very strong,” Trump said. “It’s an honor to have his endorsement. He’s going to be working with us and he’ll be working with us for a long time.”
Trump arrived at the rally late, explaining his flight from New York was disrupted by poor weather. He was in New York City to attend his civil defamation trial for a lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, a columnist who a court ruled Trump assaulted in the 1990s.
In Atkinson, Ramaswamy railed against Haley, Trump’s closest competition in the state, according to polling. She was elsewhere in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, campaigning with Gov. Chris Sununu. The newly minted Trump surrogate slammed her for advocating for robust U.S. aid to Ukraine.
“You want to cut Social Security? You want to cut Medicare? You want to cut veterans benefits so we can fork over more money to Ukraine so some kleptocrat can buy a bigger house, vote for Nikki Haley, not this man right here,” Ramaswamy charged. “But if you want to actually put an agenda that puts Americans first, to say that the moral obligation of your leaders is to the citizens of this country, not another one, there is not a better choice left in this race than this man right here.”
At a hotel in Breton Woods, N.H., on Tuesday night, Haley defended her foreign policy agenda, including funding for Ukraine and Israel’s war efforts.
“This is about preventing war, it’s always been about preventing war,” Haley said. “If we supported Ukraine with the equipment and the ammunition they needed, that’s only three and half percent of our defense budget. That’s all.”
In his speech, Trump mocked Haley and DeSantis — who was also in New Hampshire for a CNN town hall on Tuesday night — for finishing so far behind him in Iowa and accused the former South Carolina governor of recruiting Democrats and independents to support her in New Hampshire, where the primary is open to anyone who wants to participate.
“In my opinion, as you know, Nikki Haley in particular is counting on the Democrats and liberals to infiltrate your Republican primary,” Trump told the crowd as they booed at his mention of Haley. “You have a group of people coming in that are not Republicans, and it's artificially boosting her numbers here, although we're still leading by a lot.”
The 2024 GOP frontrunner also used the speech to rail against his political enemies, as he nearly always does on the campaignt trail, attacking certain news outlets and President Joe Biden.
The goal of the rally, Trump explained, was to encourage his supporters to not be complacent and help secure him another decisive victory as he pursues his third Republican presidential nomination and second term in the White House.
“Look, we're leading by a lot, but you must go out and vote, don't sit home and say, ‘well, you know what, I love the president, but he's gonna win by so much.’ Because we have to show big margins, we have to show margins like never before, which is what happened last night,” Trump said. “Because we have to take back our country. And if we don't take back our country, we're not going to have a country.”