In Greenville, it was Trumpmania — minus the mania.
Donald Trump's "Get out the Vote" rally on the campus of East Carolina University (ECU) was the portrait of a fading spectacle. His visit to campus coincided with the beginning of homecoming week at ECU — in addition to the nearly 30,000 students at the school, thousands of purple-clad alumni are in town as well to soak in some of their old college-era glory.
The Independent saw very few of those young, returning families on Monday.
The crowd was instead divided about 2:1 between the kind of tent-church revivalist "true believer" typical of a Trump rally audience — graying, over 50, decked head-to-toe in Trump paraphernalia — and current college students, many wearing ECU's purple and white. A handful of current students verified to The Independent that a number of classes had been canceled at the university to allow students to fill the bleachers.
Guess which group left early?
The scene outside the Minges Coliseum was, to the letter, what Kamala Harris had described a month before on the debate stage in Philadelphia. Less than one hour into the former president's remarks, students were streaming out of the event. Though the president would go on to speak for another 45 minutes from when the flood of exits began, many were heading for doors before the first of several videos onstage had concluded.
One result of that dynamic was a handful of surreal moments.
A massive screen had been set up outside the Minges center to accommodate people who couldn’t get in. It was there because the Trump campaign had anticipated huge crowds — but instead, the screen was set up for nobody. A dozen or so people who said they didn’t feel like passing the security checkpoint milled around in front of it instead.
Bored-looking college students strolled out the doors of the auditorium into the balmy fall weather as if they were leaving one of their classes — while in the background, Trump, over loudspeaker, bellowed threats about murderous hordes of migrants.
Trump thrives on outrage. But the outrage factor is gone now. The shock value is diminished. Just as rallygoers ho-hummed his threats of murderous migrants, they were unfazed by the acidic tone the third Trump campaign is taking. Even the aging churchgoers failed to so much as bat an eye at the vendor steps from the arena yelling out advertisements for "Say No to the Hoe" T-shirts. One elderly lady sweetly asked another vendor if she was selling them, too.
None of the Trump fans — even the students — would say that they were bored, per se. But it was clear that they had come to see the former president, not necessarily listen to him.
A half dozen told The Independent they were leaving early because they wanted to beat traffic. Law enforcement officials confirmed there was no overflow, and therefore little need to beat the traffic really — the event was not at capacity.
The constant flow of departures only broke momentarily for the official end of the event, and Trump's own exit from the stage. By the time the ex-president had finished speaking, ECU students were few and far between the elder Trump loyalists now shuffling out of the building.
If this is how Trump's last bid for political power ends, it would be a very fitting, TV-esque end. Rather than meeting a sudden conclusion, Trumpism may just end up being yesterday's fad.
Trump's late-game focus on North Carolina and Pennsylvania — the former in particular — suggests that the ex-president is less than confident about his standing in key states he will need to win the Electoral College. It's still a dead-heat race, and if Trump wins both states he will still be in a very decent position.
But in the face of Kamala Harris, whose youth has come into sharp contrast with Trump's age in the race's final days, the former president is facing his greatest test of relevance yet.
