New York Times
By Alan Blinder
August 21, 2015
Before
Donald J. Trump arrived at a college football stadium here on Friday
evening, the colorful guessing games that often accompany his campaign
were very much in the
air.
Would
Mr. Trump actually fill all of the tens of thousands of seats at
Ladd-Peebles Stadium, the home field for the University of South Alabama
Jaguars? How would one
of the largest cities in one of the country’s most conservative states
respond to a candidate whose bombast and brashness can sometimes seem
limitless? Would Mr. Trump wear a “Make America Great Again” baseball
hat, perhaps to conceal the effects of the wilting
Gulf Coast heat and humidity on his much-remarked-upon mane?
As
usual, the answers — no, loudly and yes — came amid the trademark gusto
of both Mr. Trump’s personality and his evolving campaign for the
presidency.
“Now
I know how the great Billy Graham felt, because this is the same
feeling,” Mr. Trump, referring to the celebrated evangelist, thundered
from a stage built for the
night’s rally, where the vast stretches of empty seats indicated that
attendance had fallen short of the more than 30,000 people he had
predicted.
Mr.
Trump’s errant forecast appeared to do little to diminish the zeal of
those who did gather for an event that occasionally sounded more like a
concert — there was a
playlist that included Elton John’s “Rocket Man,” as well as a five-man
band — than a political rally. But the night was punctuated with plenty
of forceful reminders, including roaring chants of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”
that Mobile had become an unexpected stop on
the presidential campaign trail.
“Please
focus your attention to the eastern sky,” a man’s voice announced on
the loudspeakers at one point, “for the arrival in Mobile, Ala., of the
next president of
the United States, Donald J. Trump.” As advertised, Mr. Trump’s jet
soon passed over the stadium.
By
the time of the flyover, some Trump fans had been at the stadium for
about 12 hours, attracted to an event whose potential for scale and
boisterousness surged as the
week went on. Mr. Trump’s campaign at first intended to hold the rally
at a far smaller site. But as word spread that he would bring his red,
white and blue road show to Mobile — an easy drive from New Orleans,
Birmingham, Ala., and Jackson, Miss. — his aides
said that interest was outpacing their plans.
And
so Mr. Trump turned to one of the state’s largest venues for a rally of
such a profile that Mobile’s mayor issued a news release filled with
details about parking,
shuttles and the weather. Before the gate opened at 5 p.m., two hours
before Mr. Trump’s scheduled appearance, hundreds of people stood in a
line snaking well into a parking lot.
More
than a dozen Republicans and a handful of Democrats have announced they
are running for their party’s 2016 presidential nomination.
That did not startle many of Mr. Trump’s supporters.
“I’m
not surprised at all,” said Tommy Hopper, 51, a petroleum cargo
surveyor who lives near Mobile. “When Alabama people believe in
something, Alabama people go full
force. We’re not a halfway state; it’s all or nothing.”
As
night fell and he entered to the sounds of “Sweet Home Alabama,” Mr.
Trump displayed similar vigor. He needled Jeb Bush, the former Florida
governor, and critiqued
Hillary Rodham Clinton. He denounced “politicians who don’t have a
clue” and talked again of building a wall to seal the border with
Mexico, a popular stand in a place that pursued an aggressive
state-level effort to curb illegal immigration. And he told the
crowd that he preferred the Bible to one of his own books.
“As much as I love ‘The Art of the Deal,’ it’s not even close,” Mr. Trump said. “We take the Bible all the way.”
What
remains to be seen is whether Mr. Trump will be able to sustain
Friday’s clamor in Alabama, which will hold its primary on March 1.
Former Senator Rick Santorum of
Pennsylvania won the Republican primary here in 2012 and is again
seeking the presidency, but many people here said they were reluctant to
support a more traditional politician.
Although
Mr. Trump has drawn criticism for unveiling few detailed policy
proposals, many of his supporters said they were unbothered.
“When
he gets in there, he’ll figure it out,” said Amanda Mancini, who said
she had traveled from California to see Mr. Trump. “So we do have to
trust him, but he has
something that we can trust in. We can look at the Trump brand, we can
look at what he’s done, and we can say that’s how he’s done everything.”
Still, others said they had plenty of advice for the man they regularly identified in conversation as “Mr. Trump.”
“Hopefully,
he’s going to sit there and say, ‘When I become elected president, what
we’re going to do is we’re going to make the border a vacation spot,
it’s going to
cost you $25 for a permit, and then you get $50 for every confirmed
kill,’ ” said Jim Sherota, 53, who works for a landscaping company.
“That’d be one nice thing.”
Mr.
Trump did not offer such a proposal. But under a threatening sky and in
between cutting comments, he did crack wise about his hair.
“Who cares if it rains, right?” he asked. “If it rains, I’ll take off my hat, and I’ll prove once and for all that it’s mine.”
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