BOZEMAN, Mont. — Inside the sometimes upside-down world in which former President Donald Trump and his most passionate supporters commune, the current trajectory of the presidential race is totally fine. This has not been the worst three weeks of Trump’s campaign. Nothing to worry about.
“I’m not nervous at all,” said Tamara Whitney, 59, a retired postal service worker from Helena, Montana. She was one of thousands of Montanans who had come out to Bobcat Stadium in Bozeman on Friday night to see Trump stump. Johnny Cash played as little kids with big silver belt buckles and cowboy hats and boots wandered by a man wearing a cow-patterned suit jacket. “Trump has got it,” Whitney said breezily.
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In interview after interview, Trump’s supporters expressed a kind of cocky equanimity about the state of things. It was a decidedly optimistic rendering of the political reality, nurtured by the man for whom they plan to vote, that appeared to be contributing to a creeping sense they have that, if this race does not go their way in November, it will have been another stolen election.
It didn’t much matter to them that on that same day, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, had also been out West, in Glendale, Arizona, for their biggest rally yet (some 15,000 people showed up, according to their campaign). Or that Trump’s lead in the polls, and his fundraising edge, had vanished. Or that the press and the internet and the entertainment industry were all abuzz with talk of Harris’ coconut memes and “joy” and “brat” lately.
“I’m sorry, I don’t believe what I see on TV and stuff, so I’m just not worried about it,” said Barb Delaney, 68, a flight attendant from Bozeman.
“It’s kind of like when you date somebody for the first time,” said Chris Black, a 35-year-old from Red Lodge, Montana, who works in real estate and was there with his wife. “The first couple weeks are always really good, but we’ll see in 90 days how it turns out, right?”
“It’s a honeymoon phase,” said Hal Garrigues, 70, a retired pilot who splits his time between Florida and Bozeman. “And Trump’s turnout is going to be massive, because his base is extremely energized.”
His base is also suspicious. This slice of the electorate, already so skeptical of institutions and what they see as corrupt media, have found the extraordinary events of the past few weeks — President Joe Biden’s exit from the campaign and the Democrats’ swift decision to unite instead behind Harris — disorienting and somewhat difficult to process.
The way they see it, the same media that told them Biden wasn’t a zombie suddenly turned on him for being a zombie and are now pushing his vice president, who was treated as a lightweight by that same media until about 14 seconds ago.
And it is Trump — the man they trust more than anyone to always keep it real — who is telling them not to believe Harris’ hype.
“Now the media is saying: ‘She’s wonderful! She’s wonderful!’” he whinged at the rally. He motioned in the direction of the broadcast cameras in the back of the room. “The same people back there,” he said. The crowd turned to hiss.
He reminded them again and again that Harris had yet to give a formal interview or hold a news conference since she declared her candidacy. “She has refused to do a single interview,” he said. “You know why? Because she’s dumb.”
When he was up against Biden, Trump played videos at his rallies showing the president’s shuffling gait and verbal and physical stumbles. On Friday, Trump stopped in the middle of his speech to direct the crowd’s attention to a new video. It was a highlight reel of Harris’ mush-mouthed media moments from interviews over the years, like her attempt to explain cloud computing technology and her disastrous exchange with Lester Holt, an NBC journalist, about the southern border. There was no menacing music set to this video but a kind of daffy, tingly tune.
The message Trump was drilling into his supporters was that the media had to cover for the last Democrat because he was infirm. They’ll cover for this Democrat, he implied, because she’s an imbecile.
And the crowd ate it up.
“She’s very well spoken for by the media, and I think that’s what’s really pushing this artificial rise in her popularity,” said Christopher Groessler, 44, a U.S. Air Force veteran who had driven four hours from Polson, Montana, to attend his first Trump rally.
Trump has set expectations for Harris so low, his supporters say they can’t imagine — or accept — any scenario in which she wins.
“I don’t believe that she can win,” Groessler said. “I am one of those ones that believes it will be a rigged election.”
“Everything is so fake, on all sides, all the hoopla,” said Delaney, the flight attendant. “I believe if we have a fair and honest election, the American people will speak.”
Asked if she thought Harris could win, Whitney, the retired postal service worker from Helena, said, “No, absolutely not.” And what if Harris does win? “I’ll be very sad.”
But would she believe it?
“Would I believe it if she wins?” Whitney asked, narrowing her eyes. She thought for a moment. Then she laughed and said, “I’ll have a lot of questions.”
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