‘Garbage can of the world’: First-time voters cheer Trump’s anti-migrant tirade
Tempe, Arizona: On an Australian university campus, the trickle of attendees at a conservative political event would typically involve nerdy young men in beige chinos and RM Williams boots, majoring in economics and political science.
But here at Arizona State University in Tempe – the largest college campus in the US – those who flocked to see Donald Trump were frequently jocks, donning their Sun Devils football gear, studying business or sport or construction management.
Arizona State University students Nick Alley (left) and Greyson Crandall at Donald Trump’s rally in Tempe.Credit: Michael Koziol
“I actually know more younger fans for Trump than I do for Harris,” said Greyson Crandall, 18, who wore a red Trump baseball cap, an orange Trump wig and a Trump T-shirt affixed with a “Frats for Trump” sticker.
His friend Nick Alley – also 18 and in a cap saying “No More Bullshit” – admitted he was mostly influenced by his parents. But Trump “seems like a better character and has more background in business”, he said.
Australians thinking about Trump supporters might imagine retirees on Florida or working-class battlers in the Midwest, but the cohort at ASU’s Mullett Arena was a world away from that image.
They received a fairly standard Trump rally on Friday (AEDT), heavy on the evangelical themes as early speakers welcomed the crowd, followed by a seemingly endless musical break featuring gee-up anthems YMCA, Eye of the Tiger and Hot Stuff mixed with opera (Time to Say Goodbye, Nessun Dorma) at deafening volumes.
Young supporters cheer Donald Trump at a rally in Tempe. Hundreds of first-time voters attended the event.Credit: AP
When Republican senator from Florida Marco Rubio left the stage only to be replaced by the full length of Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U, many who had been inside the stadium for hours grew restless, including a grumpy volunteer sitting near me. Another of my neighbours, a young man in a “Jesus Is My Saviour” T-shirt, thumbed through a copy of the Bible.
Trump, their modern-day messiah, appeared just after 2.30pm and delivered a tighter version of his stump speech, speaking for just under an hour. Trump hammered his customary message about ending the “migrant invasion” by sealing the country’s borders and invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to conduct the largest mass deportation program in US history.
“We’re a dumping ground – we’re like the garbage can of the world,” he said, a new phrase in his increasingly inflammatory campaign against immigrants.
These pledges were lapped up by the younger crowd, many voting for the first time in a presidential election. One of the biggest cheers came when Trump called for the death penalty for any migrant who kills an American citizen, part of a crackdown on immigrant gangs. “We’ve got to get these animals out of here fast,” he said.
Donald Trump emphasised his intent to deport illegal migrants and seal US borders during his rally in Tempe.Credit: AP
Research shows young men are much more receptive to the message of Republicans, and of Trump, than young women. And Trump has courted them with rhetoric that espouses macho bravado and his closeness to figures popular with young men – billionaire tech bro Elon Musk, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy and UFC president Dana White among them.
Writing in The New York Times this week, John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, called Trump’s campaign “a masterclass in bro-whispering”. And he noted his research showed Trump had halved the Democrats’ lead among registered male voters under 30 since 2020.
Logan Eckerfield, 20, says he supports Trump because of his policies on border protection.Credit: Michael Koziol
Part of that may also be Trump’s success on social media platforms such as TikTok, on which both candidates’ campaigns have stepped up efforts. Trump has amassed 12.4 million followers on that platform since joining in June.
At Wednesday’s rally, Trump gave a shout-out to Carson Carpenter, president of College Republicans at ASU, a group that calls itself “the fastest growing conservative movement at the largest university in America”. With so many students, naturally some will be conservative, but 20-year-old sports and business junior Logan Eckerfield – a locked-in Trump supporter – says it is still far from the norm.
“On campus we’re definitely the minority,” he told this masthead while waiting for the Republican candidate. “Most college campuses are blue [Democratic]. But there’s no hate between anyone; there’s no violence at all. Nobody feels that deep about it.”
Eckerfield’s support for Trump was simple. “I want closed borders, I don’t want people coming in. There’s a lot of crime coming into Arizona,” he said. “The more people that flood in, the more crime that’s gonna come in.”
Typical of the students I spoke to at ASU, Eckerfield was not comfortable with Trump’s behaviour towards women, or his alleged praise for Hitler’s generals, or his denial of the 2020 election result. But also typical was his capacity to overlook those parts of Trump’s character.
“It definitely does [bother me] but with my family and a lot of things, financially, it just makes more sense for Trump to be in office,” Eckerfield said. “Both sides, they say things I don’t agree with. I just have to go with what I agree with more.”
Sisters Calypsi (left) and Cairo Bailey say Trump is better for the country even if he sometimes says “stupid stuff”.Credit: Michael Koziol
Sisters Calypsi and Cairo Bailey had a similar take. “He has said some stupid stuff, but I’m not voting for the perfect person, I’m voting for his policies,” Cairo said.
Calypsi had a strong disdain for identity politics, something she felt motivated many of her friends. “A lot of my friends that support Kamala, they really only want a woman in office that’s black, and I feel like that’s a dumb reason to vote for someone,” she said.
“Life was so much better when he [Trump] was president. Dude, gas prices were cheaper – literally everything was cheaper – and I felt so much safer.”
Later, Trump travelled to Las Vegas in Nevada, the other crucial swing state in the country’s west, where he spoke at a rally hosted by the Turning Point political action network, co-founded by 31-year-old conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
In his element: Donald Trump on stage in Las Vegas late on Thursday.Credit: AP
“He likes young people,” Trump said of Kirk. “People have no idea how many young people there are that are conservatives in this country.”
Turning Point is one of the groups to which Trump has outsourced much of the groundwork of the campaign, rather than the Republican Party’s apparatus. It targets students and evangelicals, but there is scepticism about how much money it can really raise, and how many voters it can turn out.
Among the neon lights and slot machines of Sin City, a looser, more energetic Trump emphasised his election commitment of “no tax on tips”, as well as no taxes on overtime payments or social security benefits for seniors. “All three are very good for this room,” he said.
A confident Trump also claimed, wrongly, that he was ahead in key swing states such as Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. “I’m not supposed to say it, but we are leading by so much,” he said. Most polls show the race is too close to call in those key states.
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