In Alabama, Trump Relives His Glory Days (This Time With Some Empty Seats)
New York Times · LC · trust 40/100
The Deep South was the birthplace of the mega MAGA rally. How do people on the Gulf feel about President Trump now?
Listen · 8:42 min Share full article President Trump delivered remarks at a campaign rally in Mobile, Ala., on Friday. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times By Shawn McCreesh
What on earth was he doing all the way down there?
“I’m really here because, sometimes,” he said, “you’ve got to pay respect to the people that loved you right from the beginning.”
The indoor arena at the University of South Alabama purred.
As Republican prospects for November have darkened, Mr. Trump has started to really throw himself into the campaign trail. So far, that trail has led him to some interesting destinations. A Republican president, campaigning in ruby-red Alabama? Texas? Oklahoma ? What’s next, Nebraska? Yes, actually, that is where he will be on Monday.
Mobile occupies a mythic place in Trump lore, though. This is, in some sense, the birthplace of the MAGA rally, that traveling roadshow of Mr. Trump’s that would come to define the next decade of national political life in America.
“I don’t know if you know. It sort of all began here,” Mr. Trump reminded his audience as soon as he took the stage Friday.
When he came here in August 2015, his rise had only just begun. It was shortly after the first Republican primary debate. He was still duking it out against Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, and still being treated by much of the news media as little more than a tulip craze.
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