"I'm on the Trump train. He can say whatever he wants. I'm sold, okay?" Trump fan in Michigan
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| 8/11/15, Birch Run, Mich. |
8/11/15, "Trump fans line up hours ahead of time in Michigan to see 'the Kanye West of politics' as they encourage him: 'Don't let the Republican Party push you around!'" UK Daily Mail, David Martosko, Birch Run, Mich.
"Donald Trump is 'the Kanye West of politics,' an 18-year-old fan of the presidential candidate said...in the shadow of the billionaire's next speech.
Michigan
isn't an early primary or caucus state, but Trump will speak to a
sold-out crowd at the 2,500-seat Birch Run Expo Center, more than 90
minutes north of Detroit.
It's
by no means the biggest audience of the campaign season – Democrat
Bernie Sanders drew a reported 28,000 in Portland, Oregon on Sunday –
but it may be the largest paying audience to see a presidential
candidate speak this year.
This
isn't New Hampshire and it isn't Iowa, both crucial early states where
Trump holds leads and where politics is an all-encompassing,
full-contact sport, what the movies are in Los Angeles.
'I
don't think I'd be interested in politics at all if Trump weren't
running,' said Logan Pickard in a fast-growing line outside the arena
more than five hours before the real estate mogul's speech. 'He's
not scared to be a savage!' exclaimed John George, 15 – 'You know what I
mean? He'll just come out and say whatever he wants. He's a brutally
honest guy.'
George and
Pickard came to Birch Run with two other 18-year-olds, Griffin Seguin
and Jon Nas. All four told DailyMail.com that The Donald's
headline-grabbing political antics have turned their political apathy
into a hobby worth pursuing across the state.
Seguin
said that if Trump hadn't created a presidential-campaign splash,
there's 'zero chance' he would have spent a day of his summer vacation
talking about politics.
'I'd be home playing golf right now,' he said. 'He got me interested.'
The
Expo Center is situated a stone's throw from I-75, and a giant 'SOLD
OUT' video billboard blasted Trump's face and campaign logo to motorists
going in both directions.
Truckers honked. The crowd went wild.
'This is a little like a rock concert, one teen girl was heard telling an older woman.
The
Republican Parties in Genesee and Saginaw Counties charged $25 for
tickets to hear Trump speak as part of their joint 'Lincoln Day' event.
Supporters could pay $132 for VIP tickets with seating close enough to see Trump's signature hair.
Marsha
Bodary from Mount Clemens, Michigan was first in line, arriving around
noon with signs urging the closure of America's southern border and the
deportation of illegal immigrants. She insisted on having her photo
taken with them.
'One of my big issues is immigration,' she told DailyMail.com. 'And health care. And ISIS.'
'I'm on the Trump train. He can say whatever he wants. I'm sold, okay?'
The tycoon
front-runner has seen critics hammer him for leaving the door open to an
independent run for president if he doesn't believe the GOP is treating
him fairly.
His
party, at present, has little choice: Monday's tracking poll from the
Morning Consult showed that he gained 7 percentage points during the
week that included last Thursday's contentious debate.
Trump,
that poll's numbers show, now commands the support of 32 per cent of
registered Republican voters and independents who lean to the political
right.
A Suffolk University poll released Tuesday found Trump with a lead in Iowa, the first state to hold precinct caucuses in 2016.
He's
registering 17 per cent among likely GOP caucus voters, 5 points ahead
of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's 12 per cent showing.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio came in third with 10 per cent, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was just one point behind Walker. The
nationwide polling numbers are the leading edge of a Trump spear that
is threatening to upend conventional wisdom about American presidential
politics in new ways – and could waken a sleeping majority.
'I don't
think any of the normal politicians are resonating with anyone, because
it's the same old garbage over and over and over,' Rose said.
Her
husband Kenneth, a U.S. Army veteran who fixed Cobra helicopters during
the Vietnam War, said Trump is 'the only one that inspires me. I think
the guy can get the job done.'
Asked
to compare Trump's charisma to that of other politicians he's seen in
his lifetime, Mr. Rose skipped over Ronald Reagan and went straight to
the 44th president.
'Obama, in his first campaign and his first term,' he said.
'Everybody
was excited about having an Afro-American president, definitely. It's
like that. And he talked a good story, but I don't think he really
panned out, in terms of what he said he was going to do.'
But Trump, he said, 'is his own man. Nobody owns him. He doesn't have to rely on donations from people.'
'He don't have to kiss no butt nowhere.'
DailyMail.com
asked two dozen people in the decidedly partisan crowd who Trump should
be eyeing as a vice presidential running mate.
The overwhelming favorite: former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who was named by 17 of the 24.
'I think a Trump and Carly Fiorina ticket would be an unstoppable team,' said Teresa Charette from Perry, Michigan.
Bodary agreed but warned that 'she's been a little too snarky lately, taking pot-shots at my Donald.'
'But she would be a great opponent for Hillary. If Hillary wins her own fight. Which – Who knows?'"
Image caption: "TRUMP-MENTUM: The unconventional candidate's appeal is hard to dismiss
in the face of crowds in the thousands who will pay to hear him speak," by Daily Mail. via Drudge
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