The 2024 Trump Train

“They aren’t after me; they’re after you. I’m just standing in the way.”

Over the weekend, President Trump hosted a rally in a jet hangar at the Oakland County International Airport outside of Detroit, Michigan. It was one of the coldest days of the year, 15 degrees and snowing. A line started forming at noon that ended up stretching a mile down the road for people to get a chance to see Trump speak. Everyone was dressed in all manner of Trump and MAGA apparel. There were pop-up stands selling Trump shirts, hats, and books. The only thing breaking up the sea of Trump supporters was a billboard truck with “Nikki Haley 2024” on it, driving up and down the road alongside the line and being met with loud boos every time it passed. I was fortunate enough to have VIP tickets and got to skip the line. I had good seats, front and center, maybe a dozen rows back. I still had a couple of hours to kill before the event started.

I’d been to a number of Trump rallies before, through all of his election cycles, and this one felt much like the others. People of all ages were there. I talked to a woman who was 92 and excited to hear the President speak. I met families with kids as young as 8. In my section, there were a lot of young people in their 20s. There were guys in camo gear next to guys in three-piece suits. White-collar office workers and autoworker union guys. While the crowd was mostly white, there were people of all races in the audience. What is clear from attending these events is that Trump is the most popular politician in America right now, and it’s not even close. When his plane touched down on the runway, the crowd let out a cheer so loud it rivaled any rock concert. These people love him, and the roughly 2,000 people in attendance packed into that jet hangar tight like sardines in a can to escape the cold winds and to hear him speak.

The speech itself was good. Many people have suggested that Trump has lost energy since 2016. While that undeniably comes with age to anyone, it was not apparent in any way that he has lost his set. The man walked out onto the stage as “God Bless the U.S.A.” was playing on the loudspeakers. He walked up to the podium, doing his wholesome chungus dance that you’ve seen repeated in countless memes, to the roars of the crowd. Then came the speech itself, which went on for an hour and a half non-stop. One thing that is still amazing to see about Trump is his ability to speak off the cuff for hours at a time with no teleprompter or notes. This becomes ever more jarring given the context of politicians from Biden to McConnell literally shutting down in the middle of speeches on live TV like droids out of a Star Wars movie.

Trump spent the first half hour of the speech hammering hard on his recent civil case ruling in New York, in which he was ordered to pay over 300 million dollars in damages. I haven’t bothered to look up all the details of the case. We know it’s all bullshit, and his base knows it, too. Chats of “WE WANT TRUMP” came from the crowd on many occasions as the President transitioned into talking about the upcoming Michigan primary. This was a chance for Trump to play to this particular audience. He stressed the need for Michiganders to take advantage of the early in-person voting, now up to 10 days in advance of Election Day due to Michigan’s new election laws, and that “we need to vote so much the cheating won’t even matter.” Continuing to play to the crowd, Trump called for a show of hands for any autoworkers in the building. A couple dozen guys got up and raised their hands, Trump commenting on how “big and strong you guys are. You guys can build my car anytime, I tell ya.” He even grabbed one worker out from the audience and brought him on stage briefly, commenting how “the Secret Service won’t like me for this, but we can do it.”

The next topics were trade deals, particularly those with China and Mexico, and the failure at the southern border. This was where I was least pleased with Trump, who focused far too much on the failure of the Biden administration rather than the issue of immigration itself. In my opinion, going on about how migrants are flooding over the border and causing “BI-grant” crime due to the border wall not being finished misses the mark on how grave the situation is. A quarter of America’s population is now criminal aliens. This is not just a mishandling of the law by corrupt politicians to increase their votes, but an existential threat to the continuation of the United States as a country. Immigration is the ONLY issue that matters, and I’m unconvinced that the correct way to talk about the issue is to point out Biden’s failures. People know that the Democrats want the borders open, and people know that migrants are a client class of the Democrat Party who will vote for them no matter what. With the recent censoring of Michigan state representative Joshua Schriver over his posting a great replacement meme on Twitter, it would have been a perfect opportunity to address the ongoing threat of the replacement of Heritage Americans in their own homeland. People are smart enough to put two and two together; they just need the “all-clear” signal to talk in such terms. A 2016 Trump would have made mention of this, consequences be damned. My ongoing attempt to get a “SEND THEM BACK” chant going in the crowd was met with middling success, much to my dismay. Immigration is not a threat because they are doing it illegally. Immigration is not a threat because of voter and welfare fraud. And immigration is not just a threat because of the increased drugs and crime. Immigration, legal or otherwise, is a threat to ALL Heritage Americans simply because THIS IS OUR HOME and there is nowhere else for us to go. Joshua Schriver and others are making note of this, and it needs to continue if there is to be any lasting change in a positive direction.

The final half-hour of the speech addressed a whole grab-bag of right-wing issues of the day. Everything from rebuilding our great cities and making them beautiful — something I found interesting given Tucker Carlson’s recent tour of Moscow and his commenting on how clean and beautiful it is — to discussions about the ongoing attack on the First and Second Amendments. The largest cheer from the crowd came from the discussion about banning CRT in schools and banning men from entering women’s sports. Trump concluded by talking about how: “You are the hard-working patriots who build this country, and who will take back this country. The forgotten men and women of this great country will be forgotten no longer. We will make America strong again. We will make America rich again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.” The man sure does know how to talk to a crowd.

While I enjoyed my time at the rally, and while Trump was still quick on his feet, sharp with his tongue, and hilarious as ever, I will say, this was not a 2016 rally, or a 2020 one. Gone are the days of Trump talking about jailing and arresting abortionists, Mexicans being criminals and rapists, or calls for “locking her up.” Make of this what you will, but it’s clear that Trump has toned down the edginess. While he still pushes the Overton window further than any other politician today, this is a step back from where he was in 2016. To me, it looks as though Trump is much more conscious of how the media reports on him. I say, just take the gloves off and go full steam ahead. What have you got to lose at this point?

All of this being said, I still recommend that people attend Trump rallies. They are fun and wholesome environments filled with kind people who are confused, passionate, caring, scared, angry, and proud. They are proud to be Americans, and they want others to feel the same. And whether Trump, with all of his faults, makes it to the finish line again this time and fulfills his promises remains to be seen. Maybe you think it’s too late to elect our way out of our problems, and you may be right, and maybe you think that another man could do a better job leading America into the future, and you may be right there, too. But until such a time comes or such a man arrives to take his place, Donald Trump is the best we’ve got. So all aboard the Trump Train — we are riding this out ’til the end, whatever may come.