A bizarre 24 hours on the trail with the former president gave hints at the earthquake ahead.
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Earlier that day, I had traveled to the Lorain County fairgrounds in rural northeast Ohio to cover Trump’s first true post-presidential rally. The events tend to resemble a cross between a NASCAR tailgate and a traveling circus. Vendors from states far away come to sell their MAGA hats and Trump T-shirts. There are die-hard fans who camp out days before to get a prime position. Strangers give each other high-fives and honk their car horns as they pass houses flying Trump, or now, “F— Biden” flags.
On Saturday evening, Trump had come to town to support congressional candidate Max Miller, a former White House aide who gained his endorsement partly because he was a loyal foot soldier willing to take on Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
But no one seemed to care about any of that. Few of the attendees registered any opinion on the congressional race. Two people I interviewed from the 16th District didn’t even know who Gonzalez or Miller were.
Instead, they wanted to hear from Trump; and, if not him, then the supporting cast of allies who have eagerly fed the fraud that the 2020 election was stolen, ripped from the hands of voters like them.
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a Trump confidant and donor who has pushed conspiracy theories about the election so wild that he is now the defendant in a multimillion dollar defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, was greeted like a veritable rock star. Wearing a suit and tie, sweat glistening off his face, he posed for selfies with fans, as they screamed out “hero!” at his mere passing by.
Lindell may have been one of the evening’s main actors, but the play itself was a fantasy about last November.
On stage, a math teacher from Cincinnati gave a bizarre PowerPoint presentation to a patient audience that squinted in the sun to see slides of squiggly lines he said amounted to evidence of widespread, coordinated election fraud. He used his fuzzy math to prove Trump actually won the election, and the audience nodded along.
When it was Greene’s turn to speak, she asked the audience, “Who is your president?” “Trump!,” they replied, even though the year is 2021 and Joe Biden occupies the White House.
Not that the crowd needed much convincing. I asked Richard Stachurski, a resident of Wellington, Ohio, if he wanted Trump to run in 2024.
“How do you run for president if you’re already president?” he replied.
When he finally took the stage, Trump attacked Biden’s policies and became animated when he pivoted to the past, talking about his negotiations with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and his plans for a border wall.
There was a familiarity to it all. The chants of “4 MORE YEARS!” and “LOCK HIM UP!” (this time, aimed at infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci instead of former campaign rival Hillary Clinton). The recitation of the sinister poem, “The Snake.”
And yet, there were signs this rally was different. During past rallies, Trump’s supporters applauded Trump as he trashed immigrants, demonized the media, and echoed his calls to lock up his opponents. But they also felt hopeful the real estate magnate was giving them a voice. There was a sense that this charismatic outsider would empower them to change Washington, and a joyfulness that came with being part of a movement. Now, they felt cheated. “WE THE PEOPLE ARE PISSED OFF,” one popular rally T-shirt read. Their champion was no longer in office, which means he had been stripped of any real power. It seemed to feed a sense of desperation, even from Trump himself.
“The subject matter is somewhat depressing,” he said of his own speech.
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- Discussion
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During past rallies, Trump’s supporters felt hopeful the Manhattan billionaire was giving them a voice. Now, they felt cheated. https://t.co/73yQAKiGd9
— POLITICO (@politico) June 29, 2021
The whole purpose of this rally is to whip up the cult for another coup attempt. He wasn’t there to back his candidate for congress.
This is typical Trump though. He once came to my end of Pennsylvania to support his pick for congress. Trump introduced the candidate to the audience, made a half-hearted comment or two about the guy, then spent the rest of the speech talking about himself. He gave the audience no reason why it should vote for the candidate.
By the way, his guy lost the congressional race but is generally favored to be the Republican candidate for the senate seat being vacated by Pat Toomey. However, all his Democrat opponent has to do is mention that this same guy was one of the plaintiffs in a failed election challenge suit last year. I don’t see this Trumpy winning the senate seat.
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