Polls or people: Trump barnstorms America
Donald Trump is everywhere you look, creating havoc for his opponents. By contrast, Joe Biden is barely visible.
“You wanna talk about polls?’ says Mark Stefura as Air Force One drops from the clouds and lands next to us in Lititz, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
“This is my poll here. Look at this huge crowd, willing to stand in the rain for hours just to see their president,” says Stefura, an airconditioning salesman, as he stands with me amid a sea of screaming Trump supporters.
“This is what enthusiasm looks like and this is why Donald Trump will win this election hands down. The rest of America is going to be crying big time, just like in 2016.”
With just a week to go until the US election, the 45th President is on an extraordinary rampage across America, a jaw-dropping schedule of rallies as he seeks a historic come-from-behind victory against Joe Biden.
The President is everywhere you look, dominating the news cycle, creating havoc and controversy for his opponents and rock-star adulation from his loyal army. By contrast, Biden is barely visible, adopting the lowest profile campaign of any candidate in modern US history. On Tuesday (AEDT) Trump held an astonishing three separate rallies, each more than an hour long, around the key swing state of Pennsylvania before returning to the White House for the swearing in of the new conservative Supreme Court judge Amy Coney Barrett. Just weeks ago the 74-year-old was in hospital recovering from COVID-19.
Barrett’s confirmation by the Senate against fierce Democrat opposition is a signature triumph for Trump on the eve of the election. It fulfils his 2016 promise to make the Supreme Court more conservative, a change that will be felt for a generation.
In Lancaster County — better known to Australians as Amish country — Trump arrives from Allentown for his second rally of the day, determined to draw a contrast between his resurgence and his increasingly reclusive 77-year-old opponent. “Biden’s agenda is one of doom and gloom and depression and despair, he’s now in his basement, he’s put the ‘lid’ on (meaning no press), the lid of the garbage can,” Trump says to raucous cheers.
Stefura leans over and tells me: “Joe Biden had a rally up in Dallas, Pennsylvania, on Saturday and he had Bon Jovi there and Bon Jovi sang to 12 people and a bunch of Halloween pumpkins”.
Watching on, 42-year-old mother of two Desiree Barrasso says she brought her young boys along “to see a piece of history”.
“I told them that this is a president who has done everything he said he would do. He has kept his word. I like his honesty,” she says. “I love that he is for the people, he is very American and I feel he will protect our freedoms.”
Barrasso, whose family runs an excavation company, says she doesn’t believe he will lose, despite polls showing him trailing Biden by 7.8 percentage points nationally and by 4.8 points in Pennsylvania. “I think there are a lot of people that are not saying they are going to vote for Trump who will actually vote for him on the day.”
Trump has perfected his rallies in this campaign to make them a stunningly powerful weapon for his fans. The playbook is the same as in 2016. Lots of loud 1980s anthems from Elton John to Queen to rev the crowd up before his grand arrival on Air Force One.
On stage he speaks for more than an hour, mixing his stump speech on the teleprompter with anecdotes and wild off-topic riffs which bring the loudest cheers. He tells them that Biden is beholden to the Bernie Sanders socialist wing of the Democrats and that his running mate Kamala Harris is “more liberal than crazy Bernie”.
Here in Pennsylvania, he attacks Biden relentlessly on his debate gaffe about phasing out the oil industry and his equivocal stance on fracking, which employs up to 50,000 people in the state. “It’s a death sentence for Pennsylvania,” says Trump as the crowd boos. He then talks up his agenda for economic recovery, for American values and way of life, and his record in tacking terrorism, unfair trade deals, Iran and China.
And then there is Biden’s son Hunter’s laptop, the mention of which sparks cries of “lock him up”. Trump points at the press pack, saying the refusal of much of mainstream media to cover the story amounts to censorship. “We really don’t have freedom of press in this country,” he says as the crowd boos at the bank of TV cameras.
“Don’t believe anything you see on the news, that’s why there is such a problem in this country, the media is so against him,” says 22-year-old college student Nathan Wechsler as he sits in the crowd wearing a stars and stripes Trump 2020 hoodie and cap. “What I like about him is that he is unapologetically himself. What you see is what you get.”
His mother, Annie Faust, says that for her Trump embodies America. “He is very American, he is very patriotic, he is for the American people,” she says. “I like that he makes promises and keeps them and he is not afraid to get stuff done, even if he is a little brash.”
By this stage of his speech, Trump is talking about Biden’s mental decline. “He called me George yesterday,” he says. “This is a choice between a Trump super recovery or a Biden depression.”
Trump brings up the pandemic, calling on America to open up rather than shut down again — something he says would certainly happen under Biden. “Look, I got it (COVID), and I’m here,” he says to cheers.
“If you don’t think he will win then look at all these people,” says 74-year-old retired sales rep Liz Noah as she stands in front of a sign saying “Silent Majority” and wearing a stars and stripes face mask. “He is out there for the middle class, for the workers, for Americans. Telling it like it is.”
“And believes in God,” says her friend Judy Kilhesner, 68.
Standing nearby wearing a Trump 2020 face mask, Charles Horax, tells me it is his first rally and he drove two hours from his construction business to be here. “I’m here because he is the best president I have ever seen in my lifetime. Mostly I like that no one can control him. He doesn’t do what other people want him to do. He is for the people, for us. The only way he will lose this election is if it is rigged.”
Paula Keperling, who owns a cabinetry business, says she hated Trump when he first said he would run years ago.
“Never in my life did I think I would vote for him when he said he would first run years ago, but then when we started to learn more about him and what he stands for and I am like, ‘oh my gosh’,” she says. “He is extremely honest and he is so transparent and I pray to God that he wins. God has the final say at the end of the day and I believe God likes Donald Trump.”
Trump is now into his “we will make America Great Again” finale which has become so popular that the crowd roar the words along with him. Then the music comes on and Trump is dancing along with thousands of people to the Village People’s YMCA. Then he is off, whisked back on to Air Force One for the short flight to his next rally in Martinsburg.
If Trump wins next week, this is what his comeback looks like. If he loses, then he knows he has gone down swinging.
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