My experience at Trump’s Johnstown rally
Doors to the arena opened at 12:30 p.m. Rally-goers were urged to be in line no later than 1:30, and Trump was set to speak by 4:30. We couldn’t leave before the end of the school day, and even if we could have, people slept out overnight to get in, so we just accepted we weren’t getting into the arena. To make up for lost time, we sprinted out to the parking lot as soon as the bell rang at 2:40.
Surprisingly, we made it out of the student lot in record time and immediately hit the road.
We made good time getting over to Johnstown, but our progress was quickly diminished after getting to the on ramp towards the arena. No car, except the ones illegally going backwards on the shoulder, was moving. At first, we were concerned there was an accident on account of the many flashing lights. While at this standstill, we met a family of three who was traveling to the rally in their white convertible. I got out of the car and began talking to them. The mother first brought up how crazy the assassination attempt was and the father added how everyone wants Trump dead, but he can’t be stopped. Just as the father said that, their young daughter chimed in and showed me her drawing of Trump; she also claimed people are coming after Trump. The mother laughed awkwardly and told her that talking politics is rude.
Thankfully, our worry about a crash went away soon after when we saw a fleet of black cars traveling toward the arena on the stretch of empty highway. The mother said stopping all these cars is “something Trump would do”. Nearly everyone, even those still on the shoulder of the highway, watched the motorcade in awe, then quickly went back into their cars to resume their drive, the majority heading toward the arena.
After that delay, getting into Johnstown was a breeze. I had never been, and I was surprised by how pretty the city is. Somehow, we were able to find $1 an hour city parking less than a quarter mile walk away from the arena almost immediately, even though it was nearly 4 p.m.
Walking toward the rally, we didn’t just see Conservative viewpoints. We also saw a woman on speaker phone using profanities to describe the rally and two medium sized box trucks with anti-Trump slogans virtually on the side paid for by Harris’ campaign. When a child with a MAGA cowboy hat atop her head asked what one said, her dad, carrying a Trump yard sign, said “they’re against us”. There was also a small group counter protesters waving the trans pride flag.
However, once we got into the main gathering area it was pretty much like the entire world was Trump. “Trump won. You know it, I know it” flags. Pamphlets rejecting evolution. Trump honey. A young women vendor yelling “Fight Fight Fight bracelets only $10.” A wagon filled with free books explicitly advocating for Christian nationalism. Trump hair sun visors. There was also a large presence of security workers in the main area; some were wearing full-on army gear and armed to the T with massive guns. Unfortunately, I was worried they were some rogue militia groups due to the lack of patches, so I didn’t ask for an interview. Looking back, I regret this because I am 70-ish% sure they were in the PA National Guard. Excluding the security workers, Irwin and I were practically the only people without a Trump or USA themed article of clothing on, which made us stick out like sore thumbs.
Not to give into the fragile lib stereotypes, but all of this was- to say the least, overwhelming. Thankfully, the entrance to the arena was virtually empty and offered us a quiet-ish escape. While standing there, pleading with the security guards and employees to let us in for a quick picture, I met Martin August.
August was decked head to toe in Trump paraphernalia and seemed very eager to talk to me about his life in China and how it shaped his views.
“In China they jailed me for human rights activity. The Chinese government was not nice to me. 13 years ago the political police made me disappear. I stayed there for 68 days and the political police watched over me. I moved to New York City, then Mississippi, West Virginia, then to here,” August said.
Chief among August’s reasons for voting Conservative was his concern America was becoming a communist country.
“I do not want America to become a communist country. The Democrats are the communist party, they want to destroy the country. I am a Conservative,” August said.
Following my chat with August and realizing there was no chance of getting into the arena, I ventured into general admission. Originally I wanted this story to be about young Trump supporters, so I searched for some.
While walking around trying to find one, I got distracted by a tent run by Turning Point USA that was giving out free Trump signs. All supporters had to do for one was give their phone number and name to get information on mail-in voting. Seeing how Trump denounced mail-in voting I found this very ironic. I wanted to talk to the young Turning Point representative, but he was not having it.
After my brief escapade, I found my first, and last, young interviewee: Altoona-native Laura Woomer who came out to “support Trump and the Republicans.” Most surprising to me about this whole rally was just how blatant it was. For instance, when I asked Woomer what her biggest concern was for our generation, her answer didn’t even attempt to shy away from trans or homophobia.
“For me it’s the transgender stuff and gay and lesbian and all that bs,” Woomer said. “They’re just not right. I’m a Christian so in my eyes that’s just not right; I don’t believe in it,” Woomer said.
Following this interview, I’m almost 100% sure my face was bright red, and I realized that conducting interviews without anger and despair clouding my perspective was something I would not be capable of doing which is why I pivoted to telling this opinionated story about my time at the rally.
Trump began to speak a little after his estimated start time of 4:30. The crowd, inside the arena, and outside where we were standing was very loud shouting things like “USA USA USA” “TRUMP TRUMP”. When Trump got them to quiet down, he bragged about how well he has done in Pa., despite winning extremely narrowly in 2016 and losing the state in 2020.
For the first few minutes of his speech, he did the typical Trump-isms of name calling, MAGA chants and complaining about the fake news, but overall I was surprised how relatively calm his rhetoric was. This rally occurred only a few days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign to endorse Trump, so Trump also made an attempt to welcome “…traditional Democrats, and old-fashioned Liberals” in his opening remarks.
However this relief, for lack of a better term, was very short lived once he started talking policy. His first proposal was giving a one year jail sentence to anybody that burns the American flag. The audience seemed to agree and began chanting “USA, USA, USA”.
Following a brief tangent on how the Democratic National Convention should be called the Democrat National Convention, since to him- a renowned expert in democracy, Democrats are anything but Democratic he got back on track with his flag burning rant. “And they say it’s unconstitutional to stop it [flag burning], like hell it is, okay? Like hell it is. It’s not unconstitutional,” Trump said.
Outlawing flag burning and making it an offense is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has held this since 1990. However, that case was decided with a narrow 5-4 vote and as we know SCOTUS and the lower courts alike have only become more reactionary, so Trump’s criminalization of flag burning could become a reality. After all, just two years ago the court did away with the Roe and Casey framework that had been in place since 1973 and 1992 respectively.
He was not done with bragging about his plans to protect America from…Gun violence? Climate change? Corporate greed? No, of course not- he is concerned about protecting monuments. Monuments are important and all, but they’re made of stone when actual, living Americans are suffering. To combat this dire issue, he said he would reinstate an old law from 1907 that he used to “stop[ped] the riots in Washington” via executive order.
“…we don’t pass laws like that that are tough. And it said if you even touch a monument, if you touch it, even touch it against the will of authority, if you take it down, but if you even touch it, you go to jail for 10 years. And there’s no nine years and five months, it’s 10 years,” Trump said.
His next talking point was on his favorite thing: Villainizing immigrants. As soon as this began, I impulsively rolled my eyes and attempted to brace myself for what he was going to say.
“And we’re going to get them the hell out of here. And this is just the beginning. Wait until you see what happens,” Trump said.
He got sidetracked with boasting about his crowd size, “The size of these crowds- you know, you could fill this place up three times,” To my dismay he got back on the topic of immigration which was hard to listen to, especially in an environment where it was unquestionably praised.
“I said, these people are coming from prisons and jails. Nobody listened to me. They’re murderers. They’re drug dealers. If you look at Venezuela, as an example, their crime is down 72 percent. Because they’re taking their criminals from Caracas. They’ve taken their drug dealers. They’re emptying their prisons into our country. Their crime is down. All over the world crime is down.”
This false narrative, that is usually applied to people from countries and regions the US has a direct hand in destabilizing, has been pushed by Trump since at least 2015- “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. […] They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” Trump said.
Not only is this narrative blatantly hateful, it is also a lie. Since the 1960s, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated compared to US born people and there is no correlation between a rise in crime and undocumented people. Additionally, Trump’s claim that crime is down 72 percent in Venezuela because Venezuela is sending prisoners to the US is simply not true.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Trump then made the unsupported claim that “… the Congo, in Africa, 22 people deposited into our country. Where did you come from? The Congo. Where in the Congo? Jail. What did you do? We will not say that. You can imagine,” Trump said.
There is absolutely no evidence of this interaction happening, but even if it was, the Congo’s jails are notorious for overcrowding and they have a practically non-existent justice system. Also, I just found it disgusting that Trump would single out the Congo of all places given the dire humanitarian crisis they are facing. My utter disgust was only heightened with his next sentence.
“Listen, they come from Africa, they come from the Middle East, countries that are not friends of ours,” Trump said. “And they are coming by the millions. And these fools- Kamala, who’s a Marxist- these fools are letting them come into our country, destroy our country.”
Hearing this accompanied by supporters cheering was like being in the twilight zone. My disorientation was only increased when he got into his spiel on drugs. For Trump, he asserted that the US actually has not fought the failed war on drugs hard enough, which is why drug dealers deserve the death penalty.
“If you had the death penalty for drug dealers you wouldn’t have any more drugs,” Trump said.
Ah yes, this is why states that use the death penalty for murderers have no murders. Trump then went on to explain his idea for imposing the death penalty on drug dealers comes from a conversation he had with none other than President Xi of China.
“I had a great relationship with him [Xi], and I will again, probably. But I said, ‘do you have a drug problem? 1.4 billion people.’ ‘No, no, no, we have no drug problem.’ why don’t you have a drug problem?’ ‘Because we have the death penalty,’ he said, for drug dealers.’ ‘They sell drugs, they die,’ he said”.
