punishing disloyalty
Trump denounces GOP incumbents at South Carolina rally
Former President Donald Trump disparaged South Carolina GOP Reps. Nancy Mace and Tom Rice and endorsed their primary challengers at a rally in Florence, South Carolina, on Saturday night, the Independent reported.
Both Mace and Rice have criticized Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Rice voted to impeach Trump for inciting the riot. Mace, once a strong supporter for Trump, did not, though she did say Trump had "wiped out" his "entire legacy" on Jan. 6, according to the Independent.
Trump endorsed Katie Arrington — a former one-term state representative who referred to Trump as "Big Daddy" in her speech Saturday — to replace Mace. Against Rice, he championed state representative Russell Fry, who referred to anti-Trump Republicans like Rice as "grandstanding losers."
According to Politico, Nikki Haley, a possible 2024 presidential candidate who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, has endorsed Mace. She did not attend the rally.
Trump also addressed the ongoing war in Ukraine. "I stand as the only president of the 21st century that Russia did not invade any other country," Trump said, according to The New York Post. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, during the George W. Bush administration, and seized Crimea while Barack Obama was president.
"The fake news said my personality is going to get us into a war … but actually my personality is what kept us out of war," Trump said, per the Post.
Rolling Stone reported that Trump repeated his baseless claim that he was the true winner of the 2020 election, said he "may have to run again" in 2024, and called for "reforms making every executive branch employee fireable by the president of the United States."
"The deep state must and will be brought to heel," Trump said.