OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump has responded to Sen. Tim Scott’s engagement announcement, telling a New Hampshire rally crowd he did not think it was going to come about.
During the Laconia, New Hampshire, event, Trump brought Scott up on stage with him and referred to the South Carolina senator’s recent announcement.
“Today was a big story, the biggest story out there. He’s engaged to be married,” said Trump. “We never thought this was going to happen. What’s going on?”
“A very, very fine person, a man that we work so closely, and I work so closely with. He was in the Senate, he’s been there now a long time, and one of the most respected people in all of Washington. Senator Tim Scott, South Carolina.”
“If you want four more years of Donald Trump, let me hear you scream!” said Scott as the rallygoers cheered.
“If you want the race to be over tomorrow, let me hear you scream! How many of y’all want four more years of low inflation under Donald Trump?! How many of y’all want four more years of low crime and high law and order under Donald J. Trump?! How many of y’all want me to stop talking so you can hear from your next president, Donald J. Trump? Four more years!” he said.
The former Republican presidential contender revealed his plans to marry his longtime girlfriend, Mindy Noce, after proposing to her on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, according to Fox News. During an interview with host Trey Gowdy, the contestant himself confirmed the announcement. He described the proposal as a significant moment in his life, comparable to the day he converted to Christianity.
“As a guy who is mostly an introvert and on the quiet side, having to have a conversation about the engagement is a little, you know, uncomfortable in a way, but it’s the most exciting thing I’ll do with my life besides making Jesus my Lord,” Scott said in the Sunday interview.
“I’ve been very patient and prayerful, and I’m really excited and somewhat nervous, and I couldn’t be more thankful for having found a soul mate and someone who shares a lot of the same interests, passions, and goals that I do,” he said.
“Going to the beach and getting on one knee and asking Mindy to marry me was so much more important than anything else, and I wanted to make sure that that sacred day would not be disturbed by anything political,” Scott told Gowdy, a former U.S. congressman from South Carolina.
The couple first crossed paths during a post-church Bible study group. Noce, a successful property developer in South Carolina, is a mother of three. Scott briefly introduced her to a national audience during the November GOP presidential debate.
“My joke is as soon as I saw her picture, I figured it out. But the truth is, about two weeks into it, I knew there was something very different about her and her faith,” he said. “In our first conversation that went about an hour and a half or two, we ended up deciding to do a Bible study together.”
Interestingly, Scott has chosen to back Trump over another GOP primary opponent and his own state’s former governor, Nikki Haley.
“It’s time for us to unite our party so that we make sure that the only target we’re talking about is firing Joe Biden,” Scott emphasized after formally backing the former president at a Trump campaign rally in New Hampshire’s state capital city of Concord on Thursday.
“The best way for us to get rid of Joe Biden as our president is to unite our party now behind Donald Trump,” Scott, who ended his own 2024 presidential campaign in November, added.
