It takes all sorts to make a world, or so the saying goes.
After Kamala Harris blazed her trail into the US election race less than four months ago, changing the momentum of the faltering Democratic Party campaign, many felt it would take all sorts to get Donald Trump – the felon, the racist, the election denier, the destroyer of the Republican Party – back into the White House.
However, he’s managed to find it.
In Palm Beach on Tuesday evening, nobody was certain about what was going to happen. But standing behind their candidate were Blacks for Trump, Latinos for Trump, Women for Trump, Teens for Trump and even Canadians for Trump, willing that US president #45 would bridge a four-year gap and become president #47.
The 78-year-old had returned to his nearby Mar-a-Lago resort after 5am on Tuesday, having held last-ditch rallies in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan on Monday, the last of which ran into the wee hours, to cast his vote at a local community centre along with his wife, the lesser-spotted Melania.
Raspy of voice and jaded of expression, he kept the electioneering going. “I ran a great campaign. I think it was maybe the best of the three.”
Outside his election-watch party at the Palm Beach County Convention Centre, Donald Radd, who lives “two blocks away”, says he watched the rally in Michigan on TV and felt it would probably be Trump’s last, regardless of how the cards fell.
“He knows he can’t run again,” says Radd, who voted for Trump but has been “an independent my whole life”.
He believes Trump #47 will be far better positioned to lead than Trump #45 was.
“He’s said it himself. When he won in 2016, he was a celebrity and he had no idea about running a government. He did what he did and he did a pretty good job, but he made mistakes, of course. Now, he knows exactly what he wants to do.”
The specifics of that remain to be seen, but Trump spent the earlier part of the evening at Mar-a-Lago with some of those who may be involved in shaping the direction America travels in. Among them were Elon Musk, the Tesla chief who Trump has suggested could end up working to make US government more efficient, and Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic who has been linked to a senior health position in return for his endorsement.
“I like what he did the last time he was in, and he got cut short by Covid,” Radd says. “That took a year out of his being a president, and it was all downhill from there.”
The Palm Beach event was red tie rather than black tie. Men in Trump uniform – blue suit, white shirt, Maga hat and red tie – streamed in, as did many women in red, white and blue attire.
There was an element of haves and have-nots to it all, with golden tickets to an event celebrating those who fuelled the “Trump Train” on its third trip around America not falling everyone’s way.
“You need to have some kind of email and I don’t know how to get it,” says Anthony from Delaware.
The 31-year-old adds: “I went to Pennsylvania for the past couple of months. I deployed myself there to work on the campaign, but I came here tonight specifically for this.”
His view of Biden, who represented Delaware in the Senate from 1973 to 2009, as president could not be much dimmer.
“Oh god, a disaster,” he says. “The world’s gone from being in pretty good shape under President Trump to just an absolute mess under Biden. Now Biden just doesn’t even govern any more, he’s basically just on the beach ... I’m happy he’s going to be gone and I am praying we don’t get Kamala.”
Is it Trump or the Republican Party that appeals?
“It’s Trump,” Anthony adds. “I always leaned Republican, the party had more values I aligned with, generally speaking, but I was never huge on the candidates – Mitt Romney, John McCain, George W Bush. The ‘America First’ agenda seems a common-sense type of movement and that’s really what got me into politics. I was kind of a passive observer until President Trump came along.”
Across the street, more of those without golden tickets mingled among the large media scrums, Trumping performatively for the cameras. The dislike for Harris was palpable. This was personal.
Michael “the Blackman”, from Miami, stands at the forefront of the Blacks for Trump group. He’s here “to wave Trump in because he is going to slaughter the little devil”.
“Their only hope is to cheat,” he says. “We’re outnumbering [the Democrats] everywhere in the country in early voting and we’re outnumbering them right now [at the polls]. The only way for them to do it is to cheat because Kamala really wants to start a race war. I’m not going to start a race war, sir, but I am definitely not going to let you cheat on Trump.”
Nearby is Bob Kunst, who is Miami Beach born and raised and selling “Trump vs Tramp” T-shirts.
“I’ve condensed the entire election into three words,” he says. “Kamala should really be in jail because of all the people she has killed with her bad policies. I am being nice to her by only calling her a tramp, because she is such a liar and a thief.”
He adds: “It goes on and on. Everything she and Biden have touched is a disaster. This country could not possibly go through another four years like the last four.”
A bin lorry sits across the street, and with Biden’s “garbage” gaffe still in the minds of many Republicans, one woman speculates as to whether it’s there by choice rather than chance given Trump is such a “showman”.
Kunst says some of the categorisation of Trump supporters by Democrats, and the media, in recent years has stung.
“First of all, I am Jewish and secondly, I am gay, and I am an activist in both areas,” he goes on. “Calling me a fascist and calling me a Nazi and garbage and anti-American, I am so through with this party.”
Back over on the red-tie carpet, Conor Davenport (17) from West Palm Beach, who is in Trump uniform, says he is “100 per cent” excited despite being too young to cast a vote.
“With Joe and Kamala in office, it’s just all gone downhill. Prices have gone up and our economy is gone to crap. I am sure once we get Trump back in office everything will be set back to normal,” he says.
Asked if he was politically aware during the days of Trump #45, given he was nine in 2016, he says: “Not as much, but towards the end of his presidency I was, and I did like the policies he had in place, and I was not impressed with the things people were doing to him.”
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A little while later there is whooping and hollering. The “fake news” hasn’t sounded this good to Trump supporters since 2016. After North Carolina is called for their man by CNN, it is reported that “the Blue Wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Harris’s obvious path to victory, is collapsing.
Inside the centre, Maga hats bob up and down as Trump supporters dance to what would appear to be his favourite song, YMCA by the Village People. “Stay there and I’m sure you will find, many ways to have a good time.”
There are, indeed, many ways, and the good times seem to keep coming for Trump’s supporters. As it’s reported that the Senate is also going to turn Republican, the CNN feed cuts to a Harris official at her campaign event in Washington DC, who says the vice-president will not be addressing her supporters, or the nation, until Wednesday.
The word then starts to spread that Mar-a-Lago is clearing out and Trump is set to make the short journey to the convention centre.
“Young man, take a walk up the street. It’s a place there called the YMCA. They can start you back on your way.”
Prior to election night, there was some concern that Trump might jump the gun and declare himself the victor regardless of how the results panned out. But given how quickly it started to look like a bad day for the Democrats, and the eventual scale of his triumph, #47 had an opportunity to savour his moment.
He told the overjoyed all sorts whose efforts propelled him that this “will truly be the golden age of America” and he would fight for their futures and those of all the US citizens.
“Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness, and now we are going to fulfil that mission together.”
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