A pair kisses whereas ready for the beginning of a marketing campaign rally with former President Donald Trump on March 9 in Rome, Ga.

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A pair kisses whereas ready for the beginning of a marketing campaign rally with former President Donald Trump on March 9 in Rome, Ga.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

At 6:30 a.m. it was nonetheless darkish in Rome, Ga. But folks had been lined up for a very long time already, nonetheless almost 12 hours earlier than Trump was set to take the stage at one other of his rallies.

Some had waited all night time amid the crowd-control gates, within the backside stage of a downtown parking storage. At the very entrance of the road, Sharon Anderson waited beneath a blanket on a camp chair.

She informed me this was her fiftieth rally. Why does she attend so many?

“I want to show my support for the best president in the history of this nation,” she defined.

Anderson and a few pals had been all sporting tops styled to seem like baseball shirts, with an enormous “47” on the again (for Trump’s quest to be the forty seventh president) and “FRONT ROW JOES” on the entrance. Those “Joes” are a group of Trump superfans who get proper up entrance at rallies.

I requested Anderson how she would describe a Trump rally to somebody who has by no means been to 1.

“Oh, it’s very uplifting, encouraging, exciting,” she mentioned. “You just can’t describe it verbally.”

Many Americans will not share her expertise — or her view — and can as an alternative witness Trump occasions by means of viral clips of his at occasions violent, anti-democratic rhetoric — for instance, his latest dehumanizing language about migrants and feedback a few “bloodbath” ought to Joe Biden win a second time period.

And that is vital. But 9 years in, these surreal occasions say a lot extra concerning the continued Trump phenomenon.

A Trump rally has the texture of an all-day pep rally combined with a megachurch service — besides with Trumpism as the faith. The rallies are locations the place a motion largely outlined by grievance may be collectively, away from opponents — to not point out assertions that Trump lies and is dangerous to democracy.

They are locations to see that for a lot of Americans, Trumpism is not nearly politics; it is a core a part of their identities.

Trump maintain photographs of Laken Riley earlier than he speaks at a rally in Rome, Ga., on March 9.

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Trump maintain photographs of Laken Riley earlier than he speaks at a rally in Rome, Ga., on March 9.

Elijah Nouvelage/AFP by way of Getty Images

Families, fandoms, and ‘FJB’

Not distant from Sharon — possibly twentieth in line — Lauren Tucker waited. She and her mom traded off holding their place in line in a single day. This can be her first rally.

“Everybody here, all the people that were in line before us, they have been so amazing all night long. And they told us exactly what to expect. They helped us get our little buttons and they’ve just been wonderful,” Tucker exclaimed. “It’s almost like a little family.”

Tucker is the mom of six, and her 6-year-old son performed on a pill subsequent to her.

“It was very important for me to have my kids be here because this is something that, A, they’re going to remember, and, B, this is going to be talked about for years,” she mentioned. “For the next hundred years, this is going to be talked about. And my kids will be able to say, ‘Hey, I was there. My mom took me to that. I saw that man.'”

Tucker was sporting pink white and blue eyeshadow and an American flag cowboy hat.

And this can be a hallmark of Trump rallies: folks costume up for them in a means they do not for different politicians.

Merch sellers like Amber Johnson add to a rising sea of Trumpwear. Johnson is a Trump supporter herself — she calls herself a “Republican Mississippi hippie” — and compares the rallies to rock live shows. She speaks from expertise.

The merch at a Trump rally varies broadly, with folks procuring it from avenue distributors in addition to all around the web.

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The merch at a Trump rally varies broadly, with folks procuring it from avenue distributors in addition to all around the web.

Elijah Nouvelage/AFP by way of Getty Images

“It’s kind of the same vibe. So I followed Dead & Company and Phish around all summer, and now I’m out here doing the same thing, but selling political merchandise,” she mentioned with fun.

And that is one strategy to perceive what makes Trump such a singular phenomenon. His followers aren’t simply out to listen to a political message; they’re collaborating in a fandom — a political model of Deadheads or Parrotheads.

Then once more, there is a combativeness at a Trump live performance that does not exist at a Phish live performance — or at a Biden occasion, for that matter.

One man close by offered t-shirts printed with vulgar, sexually specific statements about Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Nancy Pelosi. Among Johnson’s tamer shirts was one which learn, “If you don’t like Trump, then you probably won’t like me, and I’m OK with that.”

Another learn “FJB,” the place the JB stands for Joe Biden and the F is an expletive.

Carli Godfrey is 16 and got here together with her grandmother, in matching t-shirts. She learn the defiant phrase written throughout their chests: “I’m still a Trump girl. I make no apologies.”

I requested Godfrey what meaning – does she assume folks need her to make apologies? She answered that even in uberconservative northwest Georgia, her politics differ from a few of her friends’.

“Being in high school, some people are like, ‘Why are you doing that?'” she mentioned, referring to her Trump fandom. “I mean, a lot of people — this is going to sound really sad, but a lot of people don’t stand for [the] flag. But I do. I always will.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) received a hero’s welcome on the Rome rally, which befell within the coronary heart of her congressional district.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) received a hero’s welcome on the Rome rally, which befell within the coronary heart of her congressional district.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The grievance of the underdog

The aggressive merch means that wearers count on, even relish, opposition. And Trump rallies have maybe a extra confrontational really feel than ever, amid his 4 indictments, and his insistence that he gained in 2020. All the voters I requested about 2020 additionally assume Trump gained that election. He did not.

Midmorning, a couple of hundred deep into the road, Angie Patrick had simply helped a good friend wriggle into a brand new t-shirt studying “God, Guns, and Trump”. Patrick mentioned me she has her personal means of combating for the previous president.

“I’m a digital warrior. That means sharing things that perhaps maybe the mainstream media doesn’t necessarily share with the public,” she defined.

She talked about a number of conspiracy theories she believes in and mentioned she had been kicked off of Twitter 31 occasions (pre-Elon Musk’s tenure, that’s).

To Patrick, Trump is beleaguered and bullied…but additionally massively highly effective. It’s a cautious needle he has managed to string along with his followers.

“I think he’s beaten the odds. And I like an underdog,” she mentioned. But she rapidly added, “although I don’t think Trump is an underdog. I think he’s definitely the front dog.”

A variety of Trump’s supporters themselves really feel like underdogs.

By mid-afternoon, folks had been taking their seats within the metropolis enviornment. One of them, school scholar Zachary Wright, mentioned he feels economically strapped, but additionally feels marginalized culturally.

“If the economy keeps on getting worse and worse and worse, then how much is it going to cost for my kids to get lunch? And not only that, what’s so frustrating is that the leftist wing focuses so much on minorities that it feels like me as a white man, that I am the minority.”

We versus ‘they’

All afternoon, folks queued for concessions and restrooms, chatting with their fellow Trump disciples.

But the temper darkened as Trump’s opening act took the stage — a run of right-wing politicians. Their message was that the Trump motion has an limitless string of enemies exterior the world.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, for instance, repeatedly referenced a anonymous “they.”

“We said build the wall. And they were offended. We said back the blue and they were offended, right?” she added, as the gang began booing in settlement.

The crowd turns to taunt the press throughout Trump’s speech in Rome.

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The crowd turns to taunt the press throughout Trump’s speech in Rome.

Danielle Kurtzleben/NPR

At a Trump rally, even the rioters who attacked the capitol on Jan. 6 are recast as victims of anti-Trump forces.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” an announcer’s deep voice boomed over dramatic music. “Please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6 hostages.”

Lately, Trump takes the stage after a recording of the nationwide anthem sung by these jailed for that assault. While Trump’s indictment for his actions on Jan. 6 looms over his marketing campaign, he additionally embraces that day. Indeed, he has mentioned he plans to pardon many of the convicted rioters.

Trump began talking in Rome at round 6:00 p.m., about an hour late. He would stay on stage for almost 2 hours — lengthy even for a Trump rally speech.

As normal, the demonization of undocumented immigrants was a key focus and drew loud cheers.

“What Joe Biden has done on our border is a crime against humanity and the people of this nation for which he will never be forgiven. We’re going to fix it. We’re going to fix it fast. We’re going to have the largest deportation in history,” he mentioned, to thunderous applause.

Even when his explicit wording does not make headlines, Trump’s speeches are stuffed with false — and typically unusual — rhetoric about migrants.

“They always say suburban housewives, they want something that’s very important: security,” he informed the gang. “They don’t want illegal immigrants coming into our country. They don’t want illegal immigrants knocking on their front door and saying, ‘I’m going to use your kitchen, and I’m going to use your bedroom, and there’s not a damn thing-‘ And that’s the nice ones, okay?”

The speech went past immigration although, meandering towards many extra of trump’s grievances — sure, towards Joe Biden, but additionally Fulton County, Ga., prosecutor Fani Willis, N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James, Megyn Kelly and Martha Stewart…to call a couple of.

In addition, he praised Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

After all of it, the night ended with a well-recognized benediction: “We will make America great again.”

Just exterior, Tynisha Williams mentioned she had a good time. She added — paradoxically — she thinks Trump’s divisiveness will unify the U.S.

“It’s time for the kid gloves to be taken off,” she mentioned. “You need to know the hard truth. And the hard truth is we need to come back together as a country. We need to get this country back together. And we got to unite. We gotta make this country great again, as simple as that.”

It’s not clear how Trump would unite the nation, nonetheless. Per week later, at one other rally, he would say that some undocumented immigrants aren’t folks, whipping up one other firestorm of controversy.