Former President Donald J. Trump drew a crowd of thousands to an Independence Day event in a quiet South Carolina town on Saturday, where he attacked the integrity of major American institutions and painted a dark portrait of the country ahead of a party meant to celebrate its founding.
Speaking for nearly 90 minutes on Main Street in Pickens, SC, with at least 20 American flags at his back, Mr. Trump often avoided the flag-waving rhetoric and calls for unity that have long been as central to Independence Day as hot dogs. baseball and fireworks.
Instead, the twice-impeached and impeached former president blasted Democrats and liberals, who he said threatened to rewrite America’s past and erase its future. He lashed out at federal law enforcement, which he accused without evidence of rampant corruption. And he attacked President Biden, listing what he considered his character flaws and accusing him of taking bribes from foreign nations.
“We want to have respect for our country and for the office” of the presidency, Trump said. “But we really have no interest in people who are sick.”
The comments of Mr. Trump were well known. But the event highlighted the hold he has on his most fervent supporters, a challenge for his Republican rivals as they seek their party’s presidential nomination from far behind Mr Trump in the polls.
Despite the sweltering humidity and heat, thousands of people thronged the streets of Pickens, a town of about 3,000 in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, starting at dawn.
Pam Nichols, who described herself as an “insurgent,” said she flew from Mundelein, Illinois, to proudly support Mr. Trump in person. He had last done so in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, he said, when a crowd of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building. He did not elaborate on his actions that day.
“They told me to come over later,” Ms. Nichols said, adding that she had seen a number of speeches by Mr. Trump online ever since. “But I felt it was time to get out now. I’m tired of being down.”
The Pickens event was only the second large-scale demonstration by Mr. Trump since he launched his campaign in November. While these rallies were a hallmark of his last two campaigns, he has so far taken the stage at events organized by other groups.
Bryan Owens, Pickens’ marketing director, said a representative of the Trump campaign reached out two weeks ago to ask him to come to town for his Independence Day celebration.
South Carolina, an early candidate state, was a key victory for Trump in the 2016 primaries as he sought to unite the Republican Party behind him. In 2020, he won the state handily, garnering overwhelming support in this region, a conservative 10-county swath in the northwest corner known as the Upstate.
Mr. Owens said the city’s decision was easy. While he personally wouldn’t support Trump in 2024, he said, the opportunity to bring a former president to Pickens was too good to pass up.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime event for Pickens,” Mr. Owens continued, gesturing behind him to a crowd that filled the streets and stretched for several blocks. “And people who aren’t as familiar with small towns, they’re going to have that experience.”
Pickens’ Independence Day festivities kicked off with a 5K run to raise money to repair water fountains on a local nature trail. American flags lined the streets and signs encouraged visitors to shop local, even as Main Street businesses were closed due to Secret Service measures.
With parking near the rally site limited, residents were being charged up to $100 (in cash, many quickly clarified) to allow visitors to leave their cars in their driveways or on their lawns. For an additional $20, a golf cart can take you from your car to the rally entrance, outside a McDonald’s at the end of Main Street.
Red, white and blue were the wardrobe colors of the day, from the hat to the boots. Tammy Milligan of Myrtle Beach, SC, arrived dressed in a Wonder Woman costume, which she said she started wearing around the time of Mr. Trump in 2019.
While he stood behind Mr. Trump wholeheartedly and called him a patriot, he acknowledged that much of the country felt differently, which he framed as an American ideal.
“Well, everyone has a right to think what they want to think,” said Ms. Milligan. “This is our country.”
Mr. Trump was not so generous. He was detained on a federal indictment accusing him of illegally withholding national security documents and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. And although he denounced the prosecution as a flagrant and politically motivated step, he promised, as he has done before, that he would reciprocate in kind if elected.
Taking a dark view of America, Trump called his political opponents “sick people” and “degenerates” who were “running our country into the ground.”
