Rallies have all the time been the lifeblood of Donald Trump’s marketing campaign technique. To the president and his staunchest supporters, the often-raucous occasions had been the key sauce that propelled him to his shock victory in 2016. However even after most networks known as the race for Joe Biden, MAGA sentiment prevails among the many president’s largest followers.
1000’s of Trump supporters flocked to Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C. on Saturday to protest the mainstream media, rail towards the Democratic Celebration, and contest President Trump’s electoral defeat to Joe Biden. The rally was reportedly an amalgamation of several different grassroots events that circulated on-line earlier than November 14, together with “March for Trump,” “Cease the Steal,” and the “Million MAGA March.”
The occasion kicked off at Freedom Plaza at midday on Saturday and featured a litany of GOP firebrand audio system, together with newly elected Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia’s 14th District. “You see, I’m not a politician—I’m a proud American lady,” Greene mentioned throughout her speech, shouting over a close-by “BLM sucks” chant. “The Democrat Celebration is now not an American get together. They’re the get together of socialism! The get together of riots! The get together of burning companies! The get together of AOC’s Inexperienced New Deal!” The prospect of environmental progressive takeover prompted a loud refrain of boos from the gang.
I spoke with greater than 20 attendees all through the day. Virtually all believed, maybe unsurprisingly, that Trump received the election. Many cited debunked conspiracy theories, a couple of believed that God had chosen Trump, and all had been fearful a couple of Biden administration implementing socialism.
“He received, palms down,” mentioned Daybreak Cline, who cited Trump’s lead on Election Night time as foolproof proof that Joe Biden stole the election. “Tuesday evening after we went to mattress, he was profitable after which we awoke, and so they stole it.”
When pressed a bit additional, Cline insisted that her theories about widespread voter fraud could be confirmed by the top of the day. “They discovered the Dominion software program,” she mentioned in reference to the debunked conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Techniques—an organization that makes vote counting machines—deliberately manipulated vote counts in Joe Biden’s favor. “So it’s gonna all come out in the present day, based on Trump’s attorneys,” Cline mentioned. “So I’m simply gonna sit again and watch for that to unravel.”
Different rally attendees spent the day proselytizing in regards to the evils of socialism. “I’m right here to assist my president, I’m right here as a result of Alex Jones advised me to be right here,” mentioned Joshua Sparks, who got here to the rally from North Carolina. “You recognize, a whole lot of stuff they are saying about election fraud, voter fraud is true. However that’s been happening for years. That is actually a lot deeper than that. That is one thing severe. It’s in regards to the new world order.”
Sparks spent the following couple of minutes expounding on the Bilderberg Group conspiracy principle, which alleges {that a} cabal of elites—together with George Soros and Invoice Gates—are engaged in a plot to take over the world. He warned that “depopulation, slavery, communism, one world authorities,” and “globalization” will destroy our civilization if these elites get their approach. “That’s why I am right here, as a result of I consider President Trump is our greatest guess to cease that.”
Satanism, he mentioned, is on the core of the Democratic Celebration’s coverage agenda. “The folks have to not be afraid to suppose that there’s evil on this world. Have a look at this,” Sparks mentioned as he pointed to the inverted cross tattoo on his proper cheek. “I began on the mistaken facet till I—that’s how I discovered God. ‘Trigger I discovered evil first after which he exists and it’s coming for us. A ‘New World Order’ is actual, man.”
Wendy Dominski, from Niagara Falls, warned of Devil’s alleged stranglehold over the media. “The information media is horrible,” she advised The Dispatch. “We’ve been to virtually all of his rallies and so they minimize and paste what they need folks to listen to. And it’s not what he mentioned. And it’s simply a whole lot of lies. And that’s what Devil does. He has come right here to kill, steal, and destroy this land, which is the promised land that God gave to us.”
“However guess what?” she continued. “The sunshine is shining by. When you go searching proper now in the present day, God is in every single place.” Dominski, who known as herself a “prayer warrior,” mentioned she is assured that God’s gentle will safe Trump one other 4 years within the White Home. “He’s received it. Stand robust, buddy. ‘Trigger we’re standing proper behind you.”
Many Trump supporters felt as if they owed the president. “President Trump for the final 4 years has all the time fought for us,” mentioned Austin Scott, a 22-year-old from Nashville, Tennessee. “So we thought we would come out and struggle for him. Trump supporters don’t actually get out within the streets like this, however we determined it was essential this time. We needed to do one thing.”
“He’s all the time been there for us,” 21-year-old David Jones chimed in. “So I needed to come out right here and be right here for him.”
Neither Scott nor Jones may wrap their heads round how Joe Biden minimize into Trump’s lead in a single day on Election Night time. “I do suppose he received with the votes stopping late at evening after which all the things altering,” Scott mentioned. “He was profitable massive after which when everybody was asleep, then Biden received like a one hundred pc of votes out of nowhere and simply took over.”
Others defined it away by blaming fraud and conspiracy.
“Everyone knows that they are stealing the election as a result of there was details about the Dominion voter machines which are flipping the votes and a Hammer program is taking votes away from Donald Trump and giving him to Biden,” Mark Bryngelson of Stafford, Virginia mentioned in reference to 2 extra debunked conspiracy theories that had been propagated by the president himself on Twitter. “There’s no approach that Joe Biden received extra votes than President Trump after which extra votes than Obama,” Bryngelson mentioned. “I imply, it’s simply unattainable. He couldn’t get anyone to his rallies.”
Joe Biden traveled sparsely and held largely drive-in rallies the place attendees stayed of their automobiles, in step with his marketing campaign’s strict adherence to COVID-19 precautions. After a brief hiatus in the beginning of the pandemic, the Trump marketing campaign persistently held massive in-person rallies on the marketing campaign path. Most of his rallies had crowds within the lots of and even hundreds.
Bryngelson advised me that he worries in regards to the polarized state of our nation. “A divided home falls, and that’s what the Democrats need, ‘trigger they’re a bunch of Marxists and communists. They wish to divide our nation, cut up it up.” However he was smitten by Trump’s therapeutic powers. “President Trump is bringing us collectively. All of us love pep rally. All of us love recreation,” he mentioned. “We’re all collectively cheering for America. And I believe that is what President Trump does for us.”
David Ferguson, a Massachusetts resident who simply recovered from throat most cancers, was not fearful in regards to the many unmasked rally attendees. “I’m 57, I’ve received a compromised immune system,” Ferguson mentioned by labored respiration. “I simply went by chemotherapy for throat most cancers. If I get it, I’ll die.” He mentioned that each month since his analysis two years in the past, his ENT most cancers physician has been imploring him to not get sick.
“Now, do you suppose I ought to be strolling round with a masks on or quarantined, you recognize, if I used to be right-minded, proper? After all.” Ferguson joked. “However as a result of I worth my freedom of alternative, my very own skill to suppose and make my particular person choices … God-given proper to decide on, to have the ability to stroll out of my home or to go work.”
I requested David about his T-shirt, which was emblazoned with a pink, white and blue “Q” emblem. “I do not know if I am an off-the-charts believer [in QAnon],” he defined. However he mentioned that what he’s adopted has been “eerily correct” up to now. “Both I am being performed or it is actual, it is that easy, it is one or the opposite,” Ferguson mentioned.
Rebecca Schmidgall, who flew up from Naples, Florida on Friday, was not involved about mask-wearing both. “I have not form of been a masks individual. I hold my distance. In order for you it to maintain your distance, you actually may. I am not going to invade anyone’s house,” Schmidgall mentioned. “But it surely’s as much as me to determine what I wish to placed on my physique, my penalties …”
Schmidgall mentioned the rally was not a lot a Trump rally because it was a requirement for accountability from the media. “It’s an honesty rally. The media has lied to us and has not advised us what we have to know.” Schmidgall was dressed head to toe in MAGA apparel however insisted that she has her disagreements with the president. “We don’t need one hundred pc Trump on a regular basis. That’s not what we’re asking for. We do not need everybody to be ‘rah, rah.’ What we would like is folks to have a look at issues objectively and to inform us what the information are, after which allow us to make up our personal thoughts.”
“No one’s received the election,” Schmidgall mentioned. “If Donald Trump didn’t get the votes, then he ought to concede. And the identical on the opposite facet, however no one is the president. No one is the president-elect proper now. That’s not a factor.”
Most of the Trump supporters I spoke to had traveled lots of of miles to take part within the march. Charles Gilbert advised me he got here all the best way from Georgia to make a stand for freedom. “I actually consider that the media is making an attempt to suppress the American spirit and so they’re testing the American spirit,” he mentioned as he started marching towards the Supreme Court docket, carrying a “Forestall Socialism” Smokey the Bear flag. “And so we got here right here in the present day to say the American spirit for freedom is alive and properly.”
Gilbert’s buddy Mark Roberts, an Alabama native, added: “That’s it. I’ve really by no means been happy with a president earlier than. … Donald Trump is the primary and just one that I can say that I’m actually happy with. He’s simply an American who loves this nation, I believe. And we’d wish to return the favor if in any respect potential.”
The march attracted lots of of members of the Proud Boys, the all-male far-right brotherhood Trump advised to “stand down and stand by” in the course of the first presidential debate in September. Decked out of their signature black and yellow garb—with helmets and bullet-proof vests —none of them would converse to me, saying merely that the group’s chief, Enrique Tarrio, is the one one permitted to talk to the press.
I listened as among the group’s leaders warned about interacting with counterprotesters. “[They’re trying to] instigate us, simply to trigger an incident. Be higher. Be smarter,” he mentioned. “Pleased with you boy,” he mentioned to the gang, who hooted and hollered in settlement.
One other member, carrying a Proud Boys offshoot of a Boy Scouts vest, grabbed the megaphone. “Boys, discover your chapters!” he ordered. “Make certain everybody’s right here, we don’t wanna lose no one behind enemy traces!”
The ladies gathered on the fringes of the Proud Boys huddle had been enamored with the group. “It is an important group of fellows. It’s, it truly is,” mentioned North Carolinian Shannon Lewis, whose husband is a member. “We’re simply out right here expressing our opinion and our rights. And we’re conserving it peaceable.”
“These guys, I like them with all my coronary heart,” mentioned Susan Miller, a instructor from New York. “They’re patriots, they’re Individuals. They love our president. They’re nonviolent. And in the event that they noticed you as a girl being damage, they’d run and encircle you to guard you. I like them and I stand with them.”
She, too, was assured that Trump would stay within the White Home for an additional 4 years. “I can not inform you what I do know,” Miller mentioned. “However I can inform you we’re gonna win. When the voter fraud and basement Joe — China communist Joe Biden — for a few years, with Little Hunter ….They’ll discover out the place they’ll go. Okay? Voter fraud is everywhere in the nation and mainstream media blocked it out as a result of they’re in mattress with the Democrats.” Miller advised me she would take a bullet for the president.
Quickly after the rally ended, violence broke out within the streets. At about 2 p.m. Saturday, I noticed counterprotesters taunting Trump rally supporters whereas driving by in a parade of automobiles. They blasted the YG music, “F*ck Donald Trump,” whereas screaming obscenities at anybody carrying MAGA paraphernalia. The violence escalated later that night. In accordance with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s spokesperson, LaToya Foster, at the very least 20 folks had been arrested and two Metropolitan D.C. cops had been injured after violent skirmishes between rally attendees and counterprotesters. One individual was additionally stabbed, based on a D.C. fireplace official.
The few counterprotesters I noticed in the course of the day drew ire from the gang in the course of the march. “Pedo supporters!” chanted Aristotle Maragas at a pair of counterprotesters who had been marching on the outskirts of the gang whereas carrying “Trump Misplaced” indicators. “If Joe Biden wins legally, I’ll congratulate Joe Biden, however proper now there’s a lot dishonest,” mentioned Maragas, who got here from the Oklahoma Metropolis space.
Maragas believes the election will find yourself on the Supreme Court docket. “If you supposedly discover 139,000 ballots in Michigan and solely Biden is chosen, and not one of the down-ballot stuff is chosen? That’s fraud. That’s dishonest. That’s mendacity. And I’m sorry, it’s mistaken.”
Maragas appeared visibly distressed in regards to the integrity of our elections. “[Voter fraud] makes our electoral system a joke, and it creates division and even extra division,” he mentioned. “And if we will’t belief our elections, then there’s one alternative: civil warfare. And I don’t need that.”
Header {photograph} by Invoice Clark/CQ-Roll Name/ Getty Photos. Different pictures by Audrey Fahlberg.
