Trump Pivots To General Election On Eve Of New Hampshire Primary

LACONIA, N.H. – Confident in his lead over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former President Donald Trump looked ahead to the general election in his final campaign rally on Monday night before the New Hampshire primary.

“Really, if you add some Democrats into it, we started off with 13, and now we’re down to two people. And I think one person will be gone, probably, tomorrow,” he said, referring to Haley.

Trump had reason to be cocky.

Haley still trails Trump in recent polls in New Hampshire, which she was counting on to make her campaign viable going forward. Many political analysts believe she will struggle to advance in the primary if she does not score a first-place finish in the Granite State, whose independent characteristics make it uniquely receptive to her candidacy. The primary in Haley’s home state of South Carolina is just a month away, and a defeat in New Hampshire would deprive her of the momentum needed to avoid an embarrassing blowout there.

“Now is the time for the Republican Party to come together,” he continued. “We have to unify.”

Trump then invited three of his former Republican rivals onstage: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. All three men had already delivered warm-up speeches, but they gave brief additional remarks.

Ramaswamy, who elicited at least one chant of “Veep,” developed a call-and-response with the audience, where he would describe a policy demand and then say, “Vote Trump” until the audience joined him in the refrain.

“If you want to seal the border, vote Trump. If you want law and order in this country, vote Trump,” he said. “If you want to defeat the Deep State, vote Trump. If you want to fight inflation,