Voting in New Hampshire was underway this Tuesday in presidential primaries including the more closely watched nominating contest on the Republican side, where in terms of candidates with extensive name recognition, only Donald Trump and Nikki Haley were left. Ahead of the results coming out, Trump faced criticism for his team reportedly having blocked off a portion of a venue recently used for a campaign event in Manchester despite the ex-president later characteristically claiming high attendance.
“Trump says he set attendance record at the SNHU arena. Odd since he used draping to cut room in half and he had more people at his last rally,” journalist James Pindell with The Boston Globe said on X, formerly Twitter.
Earlier on MSNBC, journalist John Heilemann claimed there were “empty seats all over” for the same event despite Trump’s claims of high attendance. “The other night here, there were empty seats all over the arena,” Heilemann remarked. “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.”
Polling strongly suggested that Trump would emerge victorious in the state’s GOP contest, but then comes November, when additional polling suggests a Trump loss in the expected rematch with incumbent President Joe Biden, who doesn’t have serious primary challengers. Trump came very close to winning New Hampshire in the 2016 general election in which he faced Hillary Clinton, but he sunk significantly in his match-up with Joe Biden four years later.
New Hampshire, some have suggested, may be indicative of the Republicans’ general struggles in swing/”purple” areas with Trump at the helm. The state even has a Republican governor! Yet, recent polling by Marist College found Trump trailing Biden by substantive margins.
In the meantime, Trump has largely seemed more concerned with fighting his various legal proceedings than the possibility of losing the GOP’s nomination.
Trump says he set attendance record at the SNHU arena. Odd since he used draping to cut room in half and he had more people at his last rally. pic.twitter.com/PrFa5crueh
— James Pindell (@JamesPindell) January 21, 2024
