Former President Donald Trump opened his campaign speech in Concord, New Hampshire, on Tuesday by lashing out against the Biden administration and new, potentially incriminating information that may connect President Biden to his son’s shady foreign business deals.
Mr. Trump didn’t mention his top GOP primary opponent until halfway through the speech, spending just a few minutes talking about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ struggling bid to gain on him in the polls.
A confident Mr. Trump predicted on Tuesday he may soon be attacking a different second-place candidate if Mr. DeSantis continues to lose ground.
“The question is, when will he go to third place?” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. DeSantis continues to lead by double-digits over all other GOP competitors other than Mr. Trump and remains firmly in second place, making him Mr. Trump’s top GOP target.
The former president took a few swings at the Florida governor, who was holding a dueling campaign event with New Hampshire voters an hour away in Hollis.
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“It’s not really nice but he’s holding an event right now to compete with us,” Mr. Trump said.
A new poll released Tuesday reinforced the trend among Republican voters: Mr. Trump is dominating the GOP primary field — and by a lot.
The latest poll, conducted by Morning Consult, found Mr. Trump leading Mr. DeSantis 57% to 19% among GOP primary voters. Another new poll by St. Anselm College found Mr. Trump ahead of Mr. DeSantis among New Hampshire primary voters, 47% to 19%.
Mr. Trump also leads Mr. Biden in most of the latest polls.
Mr. DeSantis also beats Mr. Biden in general election matchups but has dipped into the teens in some of the latest primary polls, in part because of an expanding Republican field, which now includes New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who recently launched his bid in New Hampshire with a direct attack on Mr. Trump.
Mr. DeSantis’s support in New Hampshire has dropped by 10 points since March, according to the St. Anselm polling.
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, has enjoyed an increase in support in early-voting states and nationally among GOP primary voters, despite federal and state criminal charges and the threat of more in the coming months.
The Morning Consult poll showed the field of more than a dozen GOP candidates stuck behind Mr. DeSantis in single-digit or nonexistent support.
The St. Anselm survey showed similar results among Granite State voters. Mr. Christie placed third behind Mr. DeSantis, with 6%, followed by former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, with 5%, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina with 4%, and former Vice President Mike Pence with 2%.
Biotech tycoon Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Assa Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum each picked up an additional 2% of the vote.
Mr. Trump predicted that, if any of them start to climb past Mr. DeSantis, he’ll vanquish them as well.
“As they keep coming up to two, we keep sending them back to the dry cleaners,” Mr. Trump told the sold-out New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women’s 76th Lilac Luncheon.
Mr. DeSantis and other candidates are attracting plenty of interest from New Hampshire voters.
About an hour’s drive south, in Hollis, Mr. DeSantis drew 400 people to a town-hall event. He did not bring up Mr. Trump by name but took veiled shots at him for failing to complete the border wall.
“We are going to get this done,” Mr. DeSantis told the crowd. “We are going to be spitting nails from day one.”
He bashed Mr. Trump for ceding too much control to Dr. Anthony Fauci over the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the decisions to lock down communities and mandate vaccinations.
“To turn over the reins to him in 2020 was a catastrophic mistake,” Mr. DeSantis said, touting his defiance of Dr. Fauci by rejecting lockdowns and mandates in Florida.
Mr. Trump responded in Concord by contradicting Mr. DeSantis’ claims.
The Florida governor, Mr. Trump said, initially closed beaches and schools and restaurants and “loved Fauci at the beginning, and thought he was great.”
Mr. Trump made it clear his No. 1 opponent in New Hampshire and nationally isn’t Mr. DeSantis, it’s Mr. Biden.
The former president opened his speech by reading a newly released WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to his Chinese Communist Party-linked business partner, in which he appeared to use his father as leverage to secure a lucrative deal.
“He’s the most corrupt president we’ve ever had,” Mr. Trump said.
He told the crowd that his big lead in the polls is the only reason he’s been targeted by federal and state prosecutors and now faces years behind bars for dozens of felony charges related to hush money payments in New York and possession and handling of classified material.
“If you were losing or if you weren’t a candidate, we’d have no problem,” Mr. Trump said, describing the mindset of the prosecutors. “They don’t like it when I’m leading and I’m leading by a lot.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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