At the last campaign speech, Trump became sentimental.
(Trump combined nostalgia with attacks on Pelosi and Harris in his final campaign speech) articles focusing on the conclusion of Trump's campaign activities analyze Trump's complex emotional changes, including nostalgia for a glorious past, struggles with the current situation, and reflections on the uncertainty of the future.
Trump concluded a year-long presidential campaign early Tuesday morning, during which he faced two apparent assassination attempts, campaign opponents turning into new Democratic candidates, and multiple criminal charges. At the last rally, he called for immediate election results to be released.
After questioning the integrity of voting machines and condemning the possibility that the voting results would take two weeks to announce, Trump stated at the podium in a battleground state: 'We want answers tonight.' After starting a nearly two-hour speech shortly after 2 AM, Trump walked on stage to the applause of supporters, appearing somewhat sentimental.
After holding rallies in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, his voice became hoarse. Trump stood before the crowd and said, 'This has been an incredible journey. In some ways, it's very sad. This is the last time.' He recalled the scene in Grand Rapids in 2016 when people were doubtful about his chances of winning.
However, this nostalgia did not last long; Trump then began a rambling closing speech, promising to 'make Detroit greater than ever before,' sharing stories about billionaire supporter Musk, criticizing Pelosi, saying he wanted to call her 'that B-word,' discussing immigrant gangs, threatening to impose a 100% tariff on Mexico over immigration issues, and comparing the size of his rally to Harris's. 'They (over there with Harris) have no enthusiasm.
She held a rally today, with no more than a hundred people present. 'And here, all four arenas are filled,' Trump said. Trump has always been superstitious; he decided to hold the last rally in the same city in Michigan, where he also concluded his campaigns in 2016 and 2020.
The former president's event in Grand Rapids was nearly two hours late and continued until the early morning. As the rally progressed, the audience began to leave gradually, with some having queued for seats in the venue since early morning. Trump urged his supporters to go out and vote, claiming, 'If we win Michigan, we can win the whole election.'
On the last day of Trump's campaign, the former president also discussed his experience of running for the White House for the third time, describing it more as the end of an era that began in 2015 — if he cannot be elected president for a second time, then this era may ultimately come to an end. Trump said, 'We have fought side by side for nine years, step by step. This room is filled with love, and I believe this country is filled with love; I think this is a movement greater than we imagine.' 'There will never be such a situation again,' Trump said. At the end of the rally, he invited his adult children to the stage to appear with him.
When discussing the political movement he leads, Trump seemed to become sentimental — his signature rallies are characterized by thousands of supporters rushing in and waiting for hours in line. Over the past week,
Trump repeatedly recalled his experiences of holding political rallies over the past decade and repeatedly mentioned that his campaign was coming to an end. 'This is really the end of a journey,' Trump said on Monday, 'but a new journey is about to begin.' Trump made it clear that he wanted people to remember him as the only political figure capable of having so many followers, even if he was eventually succeeded by another Republican. 'We are doing something historic. This is unprecedented,' Trump said at the first of four similar events on Monday — the rally in Raleigh — 'They will never have a rally like this again.'
Kellyanne Conway of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign described his rallies as the 'core' of his campaign. 'People feel they're part of something enjoyable and significant; this is not a traditional campaign but a movement. We are entering the 10th year of Trump rallies and the final sprint phase.
Millions came to see him stand up, stand out, and speak. The people are his oxygen.' 31-year-old Colleen Keel from Rochester Hills, Michigan, was waiting in line to enter the venue for a seat on Monday night; she said attending Trump's rally had always been on her 'bucket list.' 44-year-old Kristi Wackler from Grand Rapids said she wanted to 'be a part of history.' 'This might be the last time,' she said. Despite a decrease in attendance at some recent events, Trump continued to boast about the size of his rallies.
On Monday, Trump claimed that on Friday night he could have 'filled the Pfizer Forum in Milwaukee three times, even four times.' (He filled most of the seats in the arena, which has a capacity of 18,000, but there were still empty seats.) He made this statement while standing at the Dorton Arena in Raleigh, which was not full at the time, and photos showed that eight years ago at his pre-election rally there, nearly every seat was filled.
Later in Pittsburgh, Trump mocked Harris for holding a competing rally in the city, calling it 'small' and 'quite embarrassing.' He praised the 'active' audience he attracted to the PPG Paints Arena, where the crowd stood cheering and booing for at least the first hour of his speech. What he did not mention was: the obstructed upper tiers and the scattered empty seats in the lower tier. Harris's campaign team turned Trump's obsession with rally size into a frequent point of ridicule during the campaign.
Over the past week, as Trump faced the possibility of ending his political career, his emotions fluctuated greatly — sometimes even changing significantly within the same day. In the final stages of this campaign, he sometimes displayed that sharp humor that initially won him millions of American fans as an entertainer and then as a politician. On Wednesday, at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump, wearing a bright orange safety vest, sat in a sanitation truck and mocked Biden's vague 'garbage' statement to reporters. But on Sunday, after a series of polls showed Harris's campaign improving,
Trump's anger peaked. While criticizing Democrats for their handling of the southern border, Trump said that after failing to overturn the 2020 election results in 2021, he 'should not have left' the White House. After discussing two assassination attempts, he strengthened security measures at his rallies, stating that if 'someone has to shoot those fake news (reporters) to get close to him,' he 'wouldn't mind.' His campaign team later clarified that Trump did not wish for harm to come to the media.
A few hours later, when he held a rally in North Carolina, Trump seemed confused about which state he was in. In the final sprint of the campaign, he maintained a high-intensity schedule of three to four rallies a day, sometimes complaining that the pace was too fast. On Monday, facing an uncertain future, Trump expressed more nostalgia. 'It's really sad,' he said in Pittsburgh, 'we will never have this again.'
But we will hold other gatherings.
