WARREN, Mich. — Former President Donald Trump wasn’t scheduled to come on for another four hours, but 13-year-old Claudine Giorio was already checking out the merch tables outside the town hall.
Claudine came with her mom, feeling inspired after taking a class in her homeschool curriculum on elections and government. She’s a staunch Trump supporter, citing abortion and inflation as two of her major concerns. When asked why she arrived so early for a 6 p.m. event, she said she was planning on a shopping spree before getting in line. She was wearing a pink bedazzled Trump hat when she walked into the venue several hours later.
“Nobody here likes abortion, and I want to save the babies,” she said. “And I feel like ever since Biden took over office, that all of those prices have been going up for us lately.”
Claudine is just one of the thousands of Michiganders who traveled to Macomb Community College on September 27, Trump’s second stop in the state that day. This county voted twice for Barack Obama and then twice for Trump, and indications are that, like the state, it remains bitterly divided with less than six weeks until the election. Polls show Vice President Kamala Harris with a slight lead but within the margin of error.
Trump is making sure he covers his bases — he’s just getting to them a little late. Despite lines forming early in the day, with hundreds already lined up at 1 p.m., the nominee wouldn’t take the stage until 7:30 p.m.
While Claudine was browsing, people were buzzing and winding their way through long lines to get through a security checkpoint. A drumline marched back and forth, and vendors sold countless Trump themed hats, bandanas, scarves and stuffed animals.
Cathie Coon, a 64-year-old Michigan native sporting a matching “Trump 2024″ shirt, skirt and leggings set, got in line around 3 p.m. to see the former president for the first time.
“[People in Michigan] care about the housing market, employment, the economy, the border,” Coon said. “I think they’re going to go Trump because they’ve always been Trump, and I think we’ve always been doing the right thing.”
Trump won Michigan in his 2016 presidential bid, but lost it to Joe Biden in 2020. The state, which promises 15 electoral votes, is the heart of American auto manufacturing, but the industry has steadily declined for decades.
John Lamping, a third generation auto industry worker from Fraser, said he’s voting for Trump because he’s worried about the state of the manufacturing industry.
“This is Macomb County, Michigan. This is what’s called the Reagan Democrats, people with traditional auto backgrounds,” said Lamping, who described himself as an independent. “So on social issues like the Second Amendment, or the right to life, or a secure border, things like that, I’m of course on the Republican side of things.”
Further ahead in line, Stephen Schumacher prepared to film a live shot for former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s podcast, America’s Mayor Live. Schumacher, a Michigan native and Michigan State University alum, sported a star-spangled suit, reflective shades and a “Log Cabin Republicans” pin. He’s the Michigan Field Director for the group, which describes itself as “America’s oldest and largest organization for LGBT conservatives” on its website.
“If you look at the platform that just came out of the [Republican National Convention], it is the most inclusive platform that we’ve ever had, and a lot of that’s due to the great work of our committee men and women,” Schumacher said. “This is the most inclusive party ever, and President Trump has built the broadest Republican coalition in history.”
The Republican party platform was updated in July for the first time in roughly eight years, and no longer defined marriage as between “one man and one woman,” a phrase which appeared in the 2016 platform multiple times. Chapter nine of the new platform states that the party will “keep men out of women’s sports, ban Taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries, and stop Taxpayer-funded Schools from promoting gender transition, reverse Biden’s radical rewrite of Title IX Education Regulations, and restore protections for women and girls.”
Schumacher came to the town hall with a group of fellow Log Cabin Republicans. He said he believes Michigan voters and the LGBTQ+ community are inspired by Trump’s background as a New York businessman.
“Our manufacturing base has been a big problem at home right now, where we’ve been especially hard hit by Dem. policies,” Schumacher said, referring to Democratic. “The ultra-woke agenda, the ultra-liberal agenda, has not worked and people have had enough of it.”
As supporters piled into the college’s sports center, Lynyrd Skynryd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” blasted over the speakers, and the jumbotron flashed slogans including “Kamala Harris is weak, failed, and dangerously liberal.” With limited seats on the bleachers, a substantial crowd filed into the empty space on the floor, some sitting against the wall and closing their eyes.
Brian and Audrey, a married couple who declined to share their last names or professions, were among those on the floor. They said they each voted for the progressive Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016, but switched to Trump in 2020 because they felt his policies were better for the middle class. That’s one reason Trump increased his margin of victory here in Michigan from just over 11,000 votes in 2016 against Hillary Clinton to more than 100,000.
“I changed a lot over 2020. The day before the election I was like, ‘Am I really voting for Trump?’ And then I did,” Brian said. “I almost felt a little guilty.”
By 6:30 p.m., 30 minutes after the scheduled start time, the crowd was getting antsy. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, took the stage before the man of the hour, and several times the audience interrupted her by shouting, “Where’s Trump?” She gave the United Auto Workers Union a shoutout, emphasizing the GOP’s plans for manufacturing and workers’ rights in Michigan. Blackburn didn’t let on, but her several-minute speech wasn’t met with much enthusiasm — some attendees had spent their entire Friday waiting to see the former president in the flesh, and this surprise appearance may have seemed like another obstacle. The format of the event was a town hall — something Trump will intersperse with the more freewheeling rallies that can last two hours and feature multiple warm-up speakers.
When Trump finally arrived, with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A” as a walk-up song, the room erupted. During the roughly 35-minute town hall, he answered five questions from the audience, mostly focused on the auto industry, immigration and inflation. One community member, identified only as Todd, closed out the roughly 30-minute conversation on a less policy-focused note: “What’s your favorite American-made car?”
“My father was a great guy. I learned so much from him, and he loved Cadillac,” Trump answered. “I mean, his biggest luxury in life was to get a brand new dark blue Cadillac every two years.”
Despite having waited for hours to hear Trump speak, some attendees left the venue within moments of him finally taking the stage. It’s a pattern that Harris used to criticize Trump during their September 10 debate. At his rally earlier on Friday in, Trump had refuted the claim, telling the West Michigan crowd, “Nobody ever leaves, and when they do, I finish up quick, believe me.”