Former President Donald Trump, who was projected by Newsmax to be the winner of the South Carolina Republican primary minutes after the polls closed, defeating former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in her home state, said Saturday night the win was "bigger than we anticipated," but he wants to fast-forward time so he can tell President Joe Biden "You're fired!" after the general election.
"I was just informed that we got double the number of votes that has ever been received in the great state of South Carolina, so that's pretty good," Trump said during his victory celebration in Charleston, South Carolina, just hours after giving a keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.
According to Newsmax projections at 8:50 p.m. EST, Trump was ahead with 60.7% of the vote to 38.7% for Haley.
The numbers reflect the "horror" that's going on in the nation and America's need for change, Trump said in his victory speech, which aired live on Newsmax.
"You see millions and millions of people coming across the border illegally," Trump said. "We don't know where they come from. They come from jails. They come from prisons. They come from all sorts of places that we don't want to know.
"They come from mental institutions and insane asylums, and we don't want that in our country. We're not going to stand for it."
No country, he added, "could sustain what's happening" to the United States, and "we're going to straighten things out."
But now there is a "spirit that I have never seen," said Trump, who has also won the Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the primaries in New Hampshire and the Virgin Islands. "There's never been a spirit like this, and I just want to say that I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right there. Never been like this."
Trump also credited South Carolina officials who stood behind him in the race, including both Repubican senators, Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, who offered their congratulations on stage.
"They're state figures, but they're nationals. And in the truest sense of the word, they love our country so much. And they want to see our country succeed and be respected again," said Trump. "Our country is going to be respected again, respected like never before."
Trump predicted further successes in the upcoming Michigan GOP primary and in the Super Tuesday races.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, one of Trump's many supporters in the state, commented that he wanted everyone to remember that they were in Charleston for the "great moment in American history."
"Every time a rocket launches, you know, it goes up slow and it is climbing and climbing and then boom; that next stage comes off and it goes over," McMaster said. "We just did that. We just hit maximum velocity. We're going all the way."
Scott, meanwhile, who dropped his race for the GOP nomination before backing Trump's, commented: "Let me ask just one survey question, and you better answer it loud and clear: Is South Carolina Trump country?"
And Graham, taking the stage, promised voters that "the nightmare you're facing is just about over. Help is on the way. This is the most qualified man to be president of the United States. And let it be said that South Carolina created the biggest political comeback in American history."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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