Donald Trump's announcement that he's running for US president in 2024 wasn't a lark, or a ploy to avoid prosecution, as some have speculated. He's hitting the road and laying the kind of groundwork necessary for a serious bid to recapture the White House.
Nearly three months after announcing his campaign, the former president made his first campaign foray out of his adopted home state of Florida on Saturday.
In New Hampshire, he addressed a meeting of the Republican Party and announced the outgoing state party chair would be a senior adviser to his campaign. And at the state capitol in Columbia, South Carolina, he received the endorsements of the state's governor, Henry McMaster, and Senator Lindsey Graham.
The latter, a Trump confidante who expressed some disillusionment after the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021, is now back firmly in the fold.
"How many times have you heard, 'We like Trump policies, but we want somebody new?" Mr Graham asked the crowd. "There are no Trump policies without Donald Trump. I was there
accounts in the aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol by his supporters. Although the former president has yet to resume posting to his accounts, his return could provide yet another opportunity for voter outreach - and fundraising - as his still minimally staffed campaign gears up for its 2024 run.
If rallies and Facebook donations were the fuel for Mr Trump's past White House bids, his South Carolina stop was a different kind of operation.
With only 300 announced attendees, it was a decidedly low-key event compared to his typical arena gatherings, with their carnival atmosphere. Attire tended toward sport coats and dresses, not Make America Great Again hats and Let's Go Brandon t-shirts.
To win a third Republican presidential nomination, however, Mr Trump will need the support of the political rank-and-file in states like New Hampshire and South Carolina, as well as his rally-going loyalists. And while Mr Trump's national polls show continued strength, a recent South Carolina survey had nearly half of Republican voters expressing a preference for "someone else" besides Mr Trump.
"Someone else" will not appear on primary ballots, however. And with just over a year until voting begins, while he is still the only announced candidate, Donald Trump is testing out new ways to make that pitch.
"They said he's not doing rallies and he's not campaigning, maybe he's lost his step," Mr Trump said in New Hampshire. "I'm more angry now and I'm more committed now than I ever was."