WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump went to New Hampshire Tuesday to deliver a speech on veterans, but he wound up viciously attacking prosecutors in the legal cases against him and suggesting he would continue to do so even if a judge orders him to stop.
“They took the gloves off, and we can say whatever we want,” Trump told cheering supporters at a New Hampshire high school, blaming President Joe Biden and his administration for all of his legal problems and accusing them of wrongdoing instead.
Trump devoted most of his speech to veterans’ health care issues, saying he would lessen waiting times for medical care, reduce veterans’ rates of suicide and homelessness, get rid of “woke lunacy” in the military and generally improve the system for retired military personnel.
“Joe Biden puts bureaucrats first; I put veterans first,” Trump said at one point.
And while Trump spoke at length about veterans, he was much more passionate about the legal cases against him − and about the temperature in the room.
“It’s about 110 degrees in this room,” a sweaty Trump said at one point. “Nice job with the air conditioning.”
He added that the press would say “‘Trump didn’t look well, he was extremely wet.’ It’s 104 or five degrees in this room! But we’re okay with it, right?”
Trump visited New Hampshire, the first primary state, a week after his third indictment charging conspiracy and fraud in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Biden’s campaign quickly alleged Trump failed veterans and other Americans during his term in office, and that he is still offering empty promises.
“President Biden has delivered where Donald Trump failed – helping create millions of jobs, lowering prescription drug costs, and working across the aisle to rebuild our roads and bridges,” said Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz.
But Biden wasn’t the only political rival Trump targeted during the speech. He also crowed again about positive polls that put him well in front in the Republican race. He spotlighted a new survey in New Hampshire that showed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in a tie for second place, more than 30 percentage points behind the former president.
Christie, meanwhile, has bragged about polls showing him moving up in New Hampshire, which he attributed to his attacks on Trump. In a post this week on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Christie said: “Trump is a completely self-centered, self-possessed, self consumed, angry old man, and he doesn’t care about anybody else other than himself. If he becomes the President again, he will not be our retribution. He will be his own retribution.”
