The Don seeks to upstage at her university’s football video game …

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)– Donald Trump utilized college football competition weekend to bask amongst his fans in a state and area that are essential to his governmental fortunes, while attempting to upstage his Republican challenger Nikki Haley on her home grass at the Clemson-South Carolina football video game.

The previous president and existing front-runner for the 2024 Republican election strolled into Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia on Saturday night to chants of “We desire Trump! We desire Trump!” from fans collected for the yearly Palmetto Bowl, the state’s most significant sporting occasion of the year.

Haley, a Clemson alumna and trustee who was two times chosen South Carolina guv, did not participate in.

Trump was a visitor of Gov. Henry McMaster, Haley’s follower. The entourage, which went into through a genuine tunnel of Trump fans on its method to a personal suite, likewise consisted of South Carolina’s senior U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, providing the previous president a program of regional political force at a video game including Haley’s university.

McMaster rose to the guv’s workplace in 2017 when Trump raised Haley to United Nations ambassador. Graham and Haley have actually primarily been allies throughout the years. Both guys now back Trump, and the previous president takes pleasure in a large ballot lead amongst Republican main citizens. That consists of nationally and in early nominating states like South Carolina.

At halftime, Trump boiled down to the field with McMaster, drawing mainly cheers and a smattering of boos as he walked, postured for a couple of images and waved. ESPN’s broadcast on the SEC Network likewise revealed the previous president sitting with McMaster throughout the video game.

Hours before kickoff, Trump’s project revealed that he had actually been backed by “more South Carolina lawmakers than all opposing prospects integrated,” consisting of brand-new support from 6 state legislators who had actually formerly supported U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, before the South Carolinian ended his governmental quote previously this month.

Columbia was primed for Trump’s see. Around the arena Saturday afternoon, more than a half-dozen electronic signboards around the capital city of Columbia boasted a message keeping in mind Trump’s 2020 election loss and his pending legal cases: “You lost. You’re guilty. Invite to Columbia, Donald.”

Some suppliers around the location, on the other hand, hawked Trump-related product, consisting of “Trump 2020” flags, from the previous election cycle. And some fans getting in the arena before Trump’s arrival shouted “Let’s Go Brandon!”– a negative referral to President Joe Biden, who beat Trump in 2020.

Inquired about the coming main match with Trump, Haley representative Olivia Perez-Cubas called her “the only prospect with momentum” and referenced Haley’s previous come-from-behind success.

“South Carolinians understand their guv has what it requires to win due to the fact that they’ve seen her beat the chances in the past– not simply when, however two times,” she stated.

Trump has actually delighted in tweaking Haley in her own state before. “In 2016, South Carolina provided us 44 out of 46 counties — that’s not so bad,” he stated at a state GOP supper in August. “I can’t wait to win all 46. We wish to win all 46.”

South Carolina falls 4th in the GOP ballot calendar after Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, with the state’s first-in-the-South main showing up on Feb. 24, 2024. Numerous Southern states follow on March 5 as part of the Super Tuesday slate that puts more delegates up for grabs than any other day in the main project.

Trump’s South Carolina and Super Tuesday rollicks in 2016 provided him a delegate lead he would never ever give up.

Haley has actually responded to Trump in current weeks by stressing her roots as she projects in Iowa, which opens ballot nationally with its Jan. 15 caucuses.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she stated just recently in Ankeny, forecasting a strong proving in the caucuses. “Then I go head-to-head with Trump in my home state of South Carolina. And we take it.”

Trump, who shopped an NFL group in the 1980s and wound up part of a stopped working option league, has actually delighted in sports cameos throughout the years. College football has actually managed him his most generous invites. Previously this fall, he participated in the Iowa State-Iowa video game in Ames, Iowa, consisting of stopping at a fraternity home before kickoff. And while he was president, he went to the 2018 championship game video game in Atlanta and the 2019 Alabama-LSU routine season video game in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

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Barrow reported from Atlanta.