By Tom Decker
It’s been a few days since Trump won the presidency both by the popular vote as well as the Electoral College. The red wave also won the Senate majority, the House majority, the majority of the state governorships and the majority of the state legislatures. The worst part is that it was all over before midnight on Election Day 2024. The votes from California, Washington and Oregon didn’t even count. How did this happen? Did anyone see it coming?
I believe that perhaps I may have the answers to both of those questions. Whenever my wife and I need to travel to Las Vegas for business, family events or pleasure we always stay at the Trump International Hotel. This is the only 5-star, non gaming, non-smoking, family-friendly, ultra-secure, high-end luxury hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. We also have a very favorable corporate rate.
Donald Trump
On Thursday, Oct. 24, we flew into Las Vegas for some meetings with one of our suppliers scheduled for the next day. As usual, we planned to stay at Trump International. When we arrived, our airport shuttle driver told us that usual short run to the hotel was going to take longer today since Trump was in town for his Las Vegas rally.
Our driver wasn’t kidding. Our usual 15-minute ride to Trump International took over an hour. Trump’s 100-plus car motorcade stopped traffic in all directions as it sped past all of us.
Trying to check into the hotel was also an exciting new experience. Half a mile from the hotel entrance our car was stopped and carefully searched by Secret Service personnel with bomb-snuffing dogs. A quarter mile further, we were searched again by heavily armed and very serious active military personnel. After we were cleared, we proceeded to the entrance of the hotel. Instead of walking through the golden doors in the lobby, we were meet by a double line of Secret Service agents. They carefully searched us and all of our luggage individually and personally once again before we were allowed into the hotel.
That evening, as Trump was speaking live at his Las Vegas rally, my wife and I were enjoying a delicious rib eye steak dinner in the beautiful dining room of Trump International. The rally was on the big screen TVs in the luxurious dinning room for our dining pleasure.
It was a surreal experience.
Watching Trump speaking live to tens of thousands of people, while enjoying a fine meal in his beautiful hotel and waiting for him to come by afterwards. After the Trump rally ended, the “buzz” in the hotel lobby began.
“Trump is coming! Trump is coming!!” was the excited rumor circulating throughout in the lobby. The Secret Service personnel were on high alert as members of Trump’s inner circle begin to file into the lobby. The hotel guests were told that there was nothing to see. President Trump was already safely up in his penthouse on the top floor of his hotel.
We didn’t get to see Trump, Nevertheless, we did get to spend some time with Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior advisor in his first term and a central figure in many of Trump’s policy decisions.
Stephen told us Trump was going have a rally in Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Oct. 27. He admitted he was a bit concerned. Madison Square Garden has a capacity of 20,000 people. They were now being told to expect up to 250,000 people.
That night, Trump slept in his penthouse on the 64th floor. My wife and I slept thirty floors below him in our suite on the 34th floor. We slept soundly knowing we were sleeping in perhaps the safest and most secure place on the planet — at least for that night.
The next day we were up early to get to our meetings in North Las Vegas. Trump had been up before us. When we entered the lobby, we saw that hotel staff and the Secret Service were on high alert once again. Trump’s 100-plus car motorcade was assembling in front of the hotel. All traffic for several city blocks surrounding the hotel was locked down by the local police, the military, all manner of emergency vehicles and the Secret Service. When the motorcade was ready, it rolled out. Somewhere in the motorcade, the custom-built Cadillac known as the Beast carried Trump safely to the airport. The Beast is considered by the Secret Service as the most fortified vehicle in the world.
By 9 am, Trump was on his plane flying to New York to his Madison Square Garden rally. The Secret Service began taking down the barriers and metal detectors in the hotel lobby. By noon, Trump International was again quietly luxurious for its valued guests to peacefully enjoy.
In order for the average non-Trump supporter to understand how Trump won it’s important for them to understand what happens at a typical Trump rally.
We live in Ben Lomond. Our family’s construction company is located in Boulder Creek. Knowing our neighbors and our San Lorenzo Valley community as we do, I’d be willing to bet that 99% of them have never attended or watched a Trump rally. I understand and accept that. Trump and the MAGA movement may not be their “thing.”
Nevertheless, Trump and the MAGA movement is the “thing” of millions of Americans. Since the November 2020 election, Trump’s had 900 rallies. There have been 1,562 days from Election Day Nov. 3, 2020, to the Election Day Nov. 5, 2024.
Trump’s put on a rally almost two times a week every week for four years. The average attendance at a Trump rally is about 45,000 people. That average includes smaller rallies in rural areas such as the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally on July 13, where about 18,000 people showed up. It also includes the 100,000 people who attended the second Trump rally in Butler on Oct. 5. It also includes the Madison Square Garden Trump rally in New York City that drew 250,000 people on Sunday, Oct. 27. After filling every seat in the Garden, the massive overflow crowd of MAGA people completely shut down the streets in downtown Manhattan around the Garden.
So 900 rallies times the average number of 45,000 people at every rally works out to more than 40 million people who have personally attended a Trump rally in the last four years. That’s a lot of people. n
Trump rallies are free to attend. Serious Trump supporters begin lining up outside the event a few days before the rally. They do that with the hope of being among the lucky ones who will get a seat inside when the doors open early on the morning the day of the rally. No matter how large the hall, stadium or auditorium may be, it is soon filled to capacity. The overflow crowds gather around huge Jumbotrons placed in many locations outside of the now fully packed hall to watch the rally.
The average Trump rally lasts many hours. Many local leaders as well as nationally known individuals speak before Trump. The last speaker is always Trump. He delivers his speech, without notes, which usually runs over an hour.
Up front and center at every Trump rally is a special reserved section for the media and the press. CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, FOX, BBC as well as the international media outlets are always in full attendance at every rally. Their goal is to capture the entire rally from start to finish. Nevertheless, it’s always been a mystery to me that even though the mainstream media captures every minute of every Trump rally, none of them ever broadcast or rebroadcast the Trump rally to their worldwide audiences.
Due to the media’s lack of interest about sharing what they see, the only way to actually see a complete Trump rally is to be there in person. The only other way is see the entire rally is to find alternative internet channel that is streaming it. The Right Side Broadcasting Company, a tiny internet channel, has streamed every Trump rally in its entirety, live, uncut and uncensored.
It appears to me the world’s mainstream media is there just in case Trump says or does something “newsworthy.” Someone trying to assassinate Trump on July 13 at the Butler rally was considered a “newsworthy event” by the mainstream media. Although, outside of someone trying kill Trump at his rally, the lack of coverage by the mainstream media might lead one to believe that almost nothing worth covering has happened at any of the 900 Trump rallies over the last four years.
So just how did Trump win? It’s really a simple math question. . By Election Day 2024, more than 40 million Americans had attended a Trump rally. Many millions of these MAGA supporters were willing to sleep in their cars, their vans, their campers, their RVs or their tents just to be among the “lucky ones” to inside to see Trump. Millions of ordinary Americans were willing to stand in long, uncomfortable lines for many hours, sometimes days, just for a chance to see Trump in person. On Nov. 5, 2024, these millions of Americans voted for Trump. And the rest is history.
What amazes me most is that this has been going on for four years. In spite of that, I’ve rarely come across a non-Trump supporter in the SLV area who had any idea of what has been going on at Trump rallies all around the country the last four years.
Shame on the mainstream media. They had front row seats to the Trump MAGA movement and they kept it a secret from their dwindling audiences. For reasons known to alone to the mainstream, they choose to ignore what was happening right in front of their eyes for years. Did they do that to “protect” the public? Or did they hope that by ignoring Trump, he might just go away?
That mainstream media failed their public and shamed themselves in so doing in the most spectacular way.
I think that Stephen Miller, may have said it best in his email after the Madison Square Garden rally: “Lefty celebrities in gated mansions with private guards, private concierge doctors, and private tutors for their kids endorse Kamala while forcing you to live with open borders, nightmarish crime, dismal schools, overwhelmed hospitals and tiny paychecks that leave you in debt.”
Shame on the mainstream media. By omission, they have lied to their public for years about Trump and what was really happening with the MAGA movement. I truly believe they have themselves to blame for what happened on Election Day Nov. 5, 2024.
•••
Tom Decker ran for Fifth District county supervisor this year.