TRUMP'S 2024 TEST

His first campaign stops reveal a candidate unsure of what his base wants

- PHILIP ELLIOTT

BY THE TIME FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD Trump left a Salem, N.H., high school auditorium on Jan. 28—his return to the campaign trail after an unusually sleepy start to his 2024 campaign—he had ricocheted offmany of his standbys: indulging conspiracy theories, nursing conservatives’ fears about race and gender, and offering an alternative reality to his successor’s record. The hour-long diatribe suggested President Joe Biden should have thrown his son Hunter under the bus, that members of the Taliban did not fight at night because they lacked “binoculars,” and that wind turbines knock planes out of the sky.

For a fragile frontrunner facing criticism over the shaky opening to his latest bid for the White House, Trump’s initial showing did little to calm the skittishness among Republicans and some former supporters that the candidate himself acknowledged.

“They said, ‘He’s not campaigning. Maybe he’s lost a step,’” Trump said, mocking his critics. “I am more angry now and I am more committed now than ever.”

Maybe, but words—even hyper exaggerated and errant ones—aren’t deeds. Trump’s drop by with the New Hampshire GOP’s annual meeting didn’t prove his critics wrong. Nor did his next stop, in South Carolina, where he unfurled a pack of high-wattage supporters at the state capitol but offered no more steady or reassuring a performance.