While Vice President Kamala Harris claims she’s embracing the politics of joy, former President Donald Trump seems to be the one having truckloads of fun in the lead-up to Election Day.
Known for entering rallies to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” and dancing to the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.,” the former president had audiences laughing at rallies from Arizona to Virginia over the past week. Though hounded by the corporate media and leftists in the justice system, Trump looks like he’s having more fun on the trail than ever.
Final polling averages suggest that Trump has the advantage—and the momentum—heading into Election Day. RealClearPolling has Trump edging out Harris by 0.1% in national polling and up in enough swing states to pass the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.
There has not been an election-altering October surprise—no Hunter Biden laptop, no missing emails. If there was one, however, it was President Joe Biden calling Trump supporters garbage.
“Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage.’ Well, let me tell you something,” the president said during a virtual event, “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The comments outraged Trump’s supporters, just as Hillary Clinton’s comment calling them “deplorables” did in 2016. Nevertheless, the Trump campaign took the comments in stride. Following Biden’s comments, the former president held a press conference from the cockpit of a garbage truck with full campaign branding on the side.
The former president even did a rally wearing a sanitation worker’s high-visibility vest after the stunt.
Left-wing media outlets have been after Trump since his first run for office in 2016.
The Media Research Center released findings on Oct. 28 that showed Trump’s media coverage was 85% negative compared to Harris’ 78% positive coverage on ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news broadcasts for the 2024 presidential race. Media Research Center analysts reviewed 660 stories about the presidential election on the news channels from July 21, the day Biden ended his candidacy, to Oct. 25.
In the 2016 presidential race, both Trump and Clinton received high amounts of negative coverage, with 91% negative for Trump and 79% negative for Clinton. In the coverage for the 2020 race, Trump received 92% negative coverage and Biden received 66% positive coverage.
Nevertheless, media bias has not prevented Trump from broadening his support.
Trump, with a bold alternative media strategy, has brought together a motley crew of voices across the political spectrum, such as former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., entrepreneur Elon Musk, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, R-Hawaii.
During a recent interview on Fox News, Gabbard said she asks people in the audience to raise their hand if they are a Democrat or a former Democrat whenever she speaks at a Trump event.
“In almost every event, somewhere between 35%-50% of the room will raise their hand,” she said in the Oct. 29 interview on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
What excited Gabbard even more was the reaction of Trump supporters to those whose hands were raised. Trump supporters “stood up and cheered and welcomed them [Democrats and former Democrats] and just surrounded them, really, with love and kindness.”
Gabbard said a lot of people shared their experiences with her after the event.
“I had so many people come up to me at the end of that saying, ‘I came in here afraid. I’ve never been to a political rally before. I didn’t know what to expect. I’m a Democrat, lifelong Democrat, never voted before.’ Different variations of this, but each walking out saying, ‘I’m voting for Donald Trump because of what I experienced here today,’” Gabbard said.
American voters may have come to Trump rallies for the fun, but Trump needs them to stay for Election Day to win.