On Thursday, former president Donald Trump moved his focus to the general election. He did so by making his first public appearance since President Joe Biden announced his run for reelection. Bragging about his polling results, he claimed that he is not required to engage in a debate with his Republican competitors.

Trump's appearance in New Hampshire marked his first return to an early-voting state since his legal troubles increased with an indictment in New York. He spoke on the same day that his former vice president, Mike Pence, testified before a federal grand jury investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. Meanwhile, writer E. Jean Carroll testified for a second day Thursday in a civil rape case against Trump over an encounter in the 1990s, an allegation he denies.

In a nod to his 2016 campaign, Trump declared he would no longer refer to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as "crooked" and would instead use the term to describe Biden. In the event that he ran against the incumbent president again in 2024, he vowed to retake the White House and "settle our unfinished business."

Trump's New Hampshire appearance came two days after Biden kicked off his long-expected reelection campaign, presenting himself as he did in 2020 as a buttress against Trump and his "Make America Great Again" movement. Biden's campaign launch video included snapshots of Trump and warned of "MAGA extremists" working to erode freedoms including voting rights and abortion rights.

Although voters in New Hampshire rejected Trump in the 2016 and 2020 general elections, the state is a political swing state. However, it was the first state Trump won in the 2016 Republican presidential primary race, catapulting him into the party's undisputed leadership that he still holds today.