The presidential race ‘is good versus evil’ says Lara Trump during Beaufort campaign rally

Donald Trump’s campaign team deployed his celebrity daughter-in-law Lara Trump to VFW Post 8760 on Castle Rock Road in Beaufort where she delivered a fiery speech to a group of about 100 loyal supporters Wednesday afternoon.

After being introduced by Congresswoman Nancy Mace — calling her the former president’s “secret weapon” — Lara Trump predicted a big win for her father-in-law not only in South Carolina but also in the Nov. 5 general election.

The race, Lara Trump said, is not a fight between Republicans and Democrats or the left and right.

“This is good versus evil,” she said, adding, “and God is on our side.”

Lara Trump, a well-known conservative TV commentator and wife of Eric Trump, has been endorsed by the former president to take over as co-chair of the Republican National Committee. Lara Trump said she would make sure the necessary funding goes to Trump’s campaign and expanding the Republican’s lead in the House “with American-first patriots” and taking back the Senate.

The visit to the Lowcountry comes as Donald Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley tour the Palmetto State in the final days before the presidential preference primary. The results will help decide who wins GOP nomination for president. Trump and Haley are the only two remaining Republicans running active campaigns.

USA Today reported Wednesday morning that among those very likely to vote in South Carolina’s Republican primary Saturday, Trump leads Haley in a 63%-35% margin. Haley is scheduled to have her own campaign rally a few miles away in downtown Beaufort Wednesday evening.

“Why,” Lara Trump said, “is she still in this race?”

Lara Trump campaigned for her father-in-law, Donald J. Trump, at the Veterans of Foreign War Post 8760 three days before South Carolina’s Republican Presidential Primary on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, in Beaufort. Drew Martin/dmartin@islandpacket.com

Trump predicted “we will take the country back” and said her father-in-law is more focused than she has ever seen him. She received an enthusiastic response when she fired back at those who describe Trump supporters as “ultra MAGA.”

“Anybody here ultra MAGA?” Trump said. “I like how they say it’s a bad thing. That it’s a problem. We love our country.” Being ultra MAGA, Trump said, means you love your family and the country, pay your taxes and go to church.

She touted Trump’s record during his first term in office, including low unemployment for minorities, trade agreements with China, Mexico and Canada, a peace agreement in the Middle East, meetings with North Korea about denuclearizing the Korean peninsula and energy independence.

Borrowing a line once used by during the campaign by President Ronald Reagan, she asked if people were better off than they were three years ago: “Is life more affordable? Does it feel as if the world is on the verge of Word War III?” If Trump doesn’t win, Lara Trump said, it won’t be the same country afterward. “This is a must-win election for us,” she said.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace is interviewed shortly before introducing Lara Trump at the Veterans of Foreign War Post 8760 on Wednesday, three days before Saturday’s vote. Drew Martin/dmartin@islandpacket.com

She brought up the special prosecutor’s classified documents report that raised questions about President Joe Biden’s memory. Biden has fiercely disputed the report’s claims about his memory.

She said schools are indoctrinating kids “with all kinds of crazy ideology” and added, “We’ve got to close our border. If we don’t have a border we don’t have a country.”

As for the criticism from the left that Trump supporters are trying to destroy democracy by supporting him, she said there is no bigger threat than the “invasion” of 8 million illegal immigrants or allowing terrorists to “walk across the border” and not knowing who they are.

“So if they want to call us extreme, sign me up because I want Donald J. Trump for president no matter what,” Lara Trump said to applause.

“And lets face it folks, we have to play this game a little differently,” said Trump, saying Republican voters need to get better at early voting and legal ballot harvesting.

One of the attendees was 81-year-old Ralph Fabiano of Beaufort. The country was better off when Trump was in office, Fabiano said.

“I have to work part-time to pay my bills and a lot of people I work with are in the same boat,” said Fabiano, a retired tool and die worker who also worked as a firefighter and EMT. “And many of them are retirees trying to make an extra buck.”

But the country’s border with Mexico is Fabiano’s No. 1 concern. Nobody knows how many people have come over the border illegally, he said.

“If people come here legally,” Fabiano said, “happy to have them.”

A big blue sign at the front of the VFW Post proclaimed, “Trump Country, Make America Great Again.”

Supporters lined up after Lara Trump’s 30-minute speech for autographs and selfies with the former producer for the TV news magazine “Inside Edition,” who later was a Fox News contributor.

Saturday is election day

South Carolina’s Republican presidential preference primary is Feb. 24 but early voting began Feb. 12 at the Hilton Head Government Complex, Bluffton Rec Center, Beaufort Voter Registration Office in Beaufort and the St Helena Library Branch. The early voting ends Thursday. Polls are open at regular polling stations from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday.

Residents can vote in the Republican primary if they didn’t vote in the Feb. 3 Democratic presidential primary.

President Joe Biden took with 126,000 votes, which was 96% of the vote. Biden had 5,670 votes in Beaufort County, which was 97% of the total vote count.