Shortly after entering the stage 91 minutes late for his rally in Atlanta this week, Donald Trump did something he can’t seem to stop himself from doing – he made a surprise start. This was clearly shaping up to be an evening of improvisation.
He was amazed for a long time when Elon Musk’s returning SpaceX rocket booster was snatched from the sky by mechanical arms. All this fire and smoke. “Coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time,” he told his audience. “Was that crazy?” Let’s talk about the red glow of the rocket.
The day before in Erie, Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris was bursting with energy and dazzling smiles on stage, as were the thousands of people who watched her. No tangents.
She devastatingly defeated her opponent, perfecting the art of showing disbelief in a man half the country voted for. If she held up the sign, “WTF” would be reflected on her face. Her crowd was on a sugar high.
If next month’s election is the ultimate battle of good versus evil, as both sides claim it is, why are all the people of Georgia and Pennsylvania dancing in the hall and having a good time?
Harris’ rhetoric is existential in nature, and according to her, the foundations of the country may collapse on November 5. Trump’s always provocative words became even darker, even with sometimes violent overtones.
But in a country tired of what American politics had become, thousands of people were marinating in it. Enjoy it. Make it a date night. Immersed in it.
Harris’ rally on Monday and Trump’s rally one Tuesday were held on different planets, to borrow Trump’s phrase for the world each candidate offers on November 5. Trump looked forward while looking back, promising to return to the country where he was born. Harris was intensely focused on the future.
At both events, there were chants of “USA, USA” and love for America was in the air. But what America?
For U.S. Sen. Byron Donalds, who warmed up the crowd for Trump’s late arrival, this is a country where boys grow into men – “you need masculinity” – and girls become strong women who get husbands. During his speech, Trump added: “If he wins, transgender madness will be removed from our schools immediately.”
For Harris, it is a country where people have “the freedom to love who you love, openly and proudly.”
During the Trump rally, 31-year-old Jonathan Cordero, a former Bernie Sanders supporter who now supports the Republican, was asked if he believed that Democrats were also patriots. He answered “yes” and compared patriotism to religion – different denominations, all devoted to a god.
“Someone who believes in, say, Islam or Hinduism is fully committed to that belief system,” he said. “Here we have the same concept – if someone is behind Harris and chants ‘USA,’ it’s because that’s his vision of where this country should go.”
Erie was energized
More than four hours before Harris took the stage, the line to enter Erie Insurance Arena wrapped around the block. Once inside, people had over two hours to kill before the first speaker addressed them.
Many people spent most of the time on their feet and dancing while an energetic DJ spun a club medley aimed at artists such as Katy Perry, Whitney Houston, Beyonce, Madonna and Taylor Swift.
People would dance the Cha Cha slide in their seats if the DJ asked for it. “Wow, we’re already halfway there!” the crowd screamed as Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” with those lyrics came on.
Before the speeches began, Robert Cabaniss, a 28-year-old music artist from Pittsburgh two hours away, and his fishing companion showed up at the rally to support their strongly Democratic friend.
Cabaniss, if not a pure party supporter himself, supports Harris because “she is fighting for all of us” and, in his opinion, she is the only adult running for election.
“So, man, has he outgrown his shoe size yet?” he said about Trump and his “spoiled brat talk.” He continued: “I’m still waiting. It’s like Peter Pan hasn’t grown up yet.”
As for Trump supporters, he said, “I think they love their country, but not in the right way.”
A few sections away sat Angela Cox and her adult daughter, Taylor Norton, who had driven from Buffalo, New York, about 90 minutes away, after learning about the rally online. They lined up two hours before they were seated, and Cox had no complaints about it.
“I talk to people all day long and I really enjoy it,” she said. “Cormaraderie.”
The room was electrified when Harris came out and delivered a half-hour speech in which she touched on the most important issues of her campaign – her plans, her biography, patriotism and the “brutally serious consequences” that Trump, whom she began to call “a frivolous man”, would suffer if he won.
Her surprise was that she had the audience watch a large-screen video of Trump musing about using the military to suppress the “enemy within” – political opponents, investigators and recalcitrant bureaucrats he described as more dangerous than Russia or China.
“You heard his words,” she said. “He talks about the enemy within, Pennsylvania. … He considers anyone who does not support him or does not bend to his will an enemy of our country.” Lustful boos echoed throughout the room.
Her rally participants were excited all the time. She then made her way through the crowd on the floor, shaking hands and talking for 20 minutes.
“I think she’s great,” said Luther Manus, a 97-year-old World War II and Vietnam veteran, as the arena began to empty. “And that’s something, because we don’t need what we had anymore.”
It was date night in Atlanta
The 2,800-seat Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center in the suburbs somewhat diluted the carnival stall atmosphere that traditionally accompanies Trump’s outdoor fairground rally.
However, the exhibition featured the usual merchandise, such as T-shirts that read “I’m voting for a felon and a redneck,” a reference to Trump’s criminal conviction and his running mate J.D. Vance’s 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”
“I just want to surround myself with people who feel the same way I do,” said Lydia Ward, a 33-year-old makeup artist, mother of two and longtime Trump supporter. “I’ve never been to anything like this. The weather is great, we managed to find a babysitter and we kind of have a date.”
The typical attendee spent as much as eight hours at Trump’s event, from joining the band at the headquarters of the Atlanta ballet and opera companies to seeing him leave the stage to the sounds of the Village People’s 1978 song “YMCA.”
Slides were displayed on the screen above the stage, and few people paid attention to them. Some slides included dystopian threats about the consequences of a Harris victory, focusing on an America overrun by violent immigrants. “Kamala’s plan for the border: Make America Haiti,” one of them said, along with a dog strolling down a garbage-strewn street. “Kamala is responsible for a broken economy, broken borders and a broken world,” said another.
Whether Trump was tired from the third event of the day or was simply feeling laid back, his remarks were somewhat subdued and shorter than some recent speeches, clocking in at 70 minutes. But he covered his bases.
He blew the audience away with one line. He made a case for MAGA supporters, telling them that his rich friends are “boring as hell,” even though one of the world’s richest, Trump supporter Musk, clearly fascinates him.
He mocked Harris for being married to a teleprompter and not knowing what inflation is (she does). He exploited the thrill of group transgression, as when he said that under Democrats, “everything turns to…” The crowd finished the sentence.
One of his more recent statements on immigration was greeted with a hearty ovation: “The United States is now an occupied country, but November 5 is liberation day.”
“I love the excitement,” said Kay Bomar, a retiree from Ringgold in northwest Georgia. “You can talk to these people about how you feel and they will tell you how they feel. You can say what you think here and you don’t have to be afraid of offending someone because they feel something different.
Cordero, a former Bernie Sanders supporter, plans to vote for Trump for the first time. “There is a similarity,” he said. “Not in the literal sense, but in the sense of the energy they release in people. They really care about change.”
Cordero, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta and works in technology and advertising, turned out to be part of history.
“I’m Latino,” he said. “I’m Puerto Rican and there are people who say that Latinos shouldn’t like Trump or that Latinos shouldn’t support someone like Trump. But I don’t agree with this statement.
“I think Trump really reached out to all the people this time, just saying that we’re going to get the economy going. We will make our country safe again.”
During their debate, Harris got under Trump’s skin, noting that his crowds might thin out while he was still speaking. Several were released from custody Tuesday evening, starting about 25 minutes into his much-delayed speech. Most of them crashed.
They included Julius Adams, a black student receiving disability benefits, and his wife, Tanya Young-Adams, who delivers pizza for Papa Johns and is white.
He believes that Trump will deport those immigrants who are “causing trouble” even if he does not carry out the promised mass deportations. She believes in Trump’s plan to exempt tips and car loans from taxes.
“We are on sick leave,” she said. “We can barely cope with grocery shopping. Plus I have a car payment and the gas is outrageous.”
Trump and Harris gave their supporters an evening away from that kind of drudgery. In both Erie and Atlanta, it was a welcome party for the tribe, a performance and an opportunity to escape from reality.
The election results will show which of the protests turned out to be more rational.
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Thompson reported from Erie, Pennsylvania, Amy from Atlanta and Woodward from Washington.
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