In a discussion this Monday on the MSNBC program “Morning Joe,” journalist John Heilemann exposed what he characterized as some of Donald Trump’s serious struggles in New Hampshire, where voting in a GOP presidential primary will take place this week and where Republicans might hope to be successful in November, though there are already indications of Trump losing the state to Biden in a rematch this year.
Specifically, Heilemann said that turnout was clearly lagging at an event recently held for the Trump campaign at a venue in Manchester, the SNHU Arena. Trump also used the venue amid previous campaigning for president. “The other night here, there were empty seats all over the arena,” Heilemann claimed. “They said there were a few thousand people there, and there probably were a few thousand, but that place seats 10,000, and it was way less than half-filled, and there were — even on the lower level, you could see just seats after seat after seat with no one in it.”
Others including journalist James Pindell with the Boston Globe said that the Trump team used draping to block off a portion of the arena when it was actually in use for the rally — allowing for the impression of high turnout while, in reality, seats went unfilled.
Trump remains on track to win the GOP’s unfolding primary, with the candidates — now down in terms of contenders with extensive name recognition to just Nikki Haley — having sometimes been suspiciously hesitant to even directly criticize Trump. A subset of those who’ve dropped out have just endorsed Trump, including Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy — the last of whom long was avowedly pro-Trump in his public commentary, despite ostensibly running against him!
Trump was very close to actually winning New Hampshire in the general election back in 2016 amid ascending to his presently high-profile place in national politics, but he sunk majorly in 2020, and polling suggests a repeat in 2024 during the later general election.
