Snow was falling, lightly dusting the tables full of “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president” and “Fight for Trump” and other “Make America great again” regalia. Still, in subzero temperatures, people waited in a long and winding line on Saturday for a chance to see their greatest showman.
Donald Trump, the former US president, was about to hold the biggest campaign rally yet in New Hampshire’s primary elections, where victory would put him within touching distance of the 2024 Republican nomination – and trigger renewed warnings that democracy itself will be on the ballot in November.
But his ardent supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire, saw things differently – 180 degrees differently. In their view it is Joe Biden who acts like an autocrat and Trump who is the saviour of the constitutional republic.
The ex-president has long deployed strategy in which accusations against him are flipped and turned on the accuser. And the rally, and this election season so far, is proof that it’s working.
“The funny thing is that everything the other side seems to accuse Trump of they’re guilty of themselves,” said Steve Baird, 52, a chief financial officer. “I feel more that Biden seems to be running the country like a dictator with all his executive orders and everything else.
“Trump might be a billionaire but I feel more of a connection, that he’s more of a president for the people and that he’ll follow the constitution more than what the current establishment is doing.”
During a presidential election debate in 2016, when Hillary Clinton called Trump a “puppet” of Russian president Vladimir Putin, he interjected: “No puppet. You’re the puppet.”
Trump has perfected this twist of message over the years. In his inverted mirror, “fake news” refers not to online disinformation but a corrupt media ranged against Trump; the threat to democracy stems not from election lies but the weaponisation of the justice department; minority rule is less about gerrymandering than the radical left imposing big government, open borders and “woke” ideology.
‘We’re living in dictatorship right now’
There is no greater symbol of this reversal than the deadly January 6 insurrection, for which more than 1,200 people have been charged and nearly 900 have been convicted or pleaded guilty. Collectively they have been sentenced to more than 840 years in prison. Yet in Trump’s telling, they are “patriots” and, more recently, “hostages” whom he intends to pardon.
Interviews in Manchester, where thousands of Trump supporters packed a sports arena in a show of force that spelled out the challenge facing primary rivals Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, demonstrated that this strategy, amplified by rightwing media, has soaked into the grassroots. If the 2024 election is a battle for democracy, they believe Trump is on the right side of history.
Derek Levine, 52, a commercial airline pilot who served for 23 years in the air force, was wearing a “Trump: Save America again” cap. “Trump has already been a president once and he wasn’t a dictator then,” he said.
“We’re seeing a dictator right now with weaponizing the FBI against conservative people, calling parents in Virginia who are concerned about what their kids are being taught domestic terrorists. That’s a dictator; not what Trump did.”
Jenna Driquier, 31, a hairdresser, added: “We’re living in dictatorship right now. The high prices, trying to get to communism, it’s not what this country was founded on.”
The struggle over perception is a struggle over language. As Biden and his allies frequently stress the need to protect democracy at home and abroad, Trump has co-opted the word, repeating it ad nauseam, draining it of meaning and establishing a false equivalence between a man who has served in Washington for half a century and one who attempted a coup.
At Saturday’s rally, early in a speech lasting more than an hour-and-a-half, a giant screen above Trump’s head stated in stark black and white: “Biden attacks democracy.”
The Republican frontrunner, wearing his customary dark suit, white shirt and red tie, said: “He is a threat to democracy. He really is. He’s a threat to democracy. We have to get him out. You know why he’s a threat to democracy? A couple of reasons but you know the first reason? He’s grossly incompetent.”
Trump, facing 91 criminal charges, accused Biden of weaponising the justice department against him and railed against the president’s “protectors” in the “fake news” media.
He did also pivot to attack Haley, seen as his strongest challenger in New Hampshire. Messages on the big screen included: “Nikki Haley is loved by Democrats, Wall Street & Globalists.” In a further piece of political theatre, Trump invited Governor Henry McMaster and other officials from South Carolina to assure him the state will vote in his favour, even though it is Haley’s home turf.
Notably, he spent less time on Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who finished second in the Iowa caucuses but is polling weakly in New Hampshire. “You notice I haven’t mentioned the name of Ron DeSanctimonious yet,” he said “I think he’s gone.”
Trump addressed a flippant remark that he made on Fox News vowing to be a dictator on “day one”, insisting that he had been unfairly edited. But some of his other comments left room for speculation about his authoritarian impulses.
He argued that presidents should be immune from criminal prosecution once they have left office, a case his lawyers are attempting to make as he prepares to stand trial for election subversion. He said of the media: “These are sick people. We have to straighten out our free press.”
He heaped praise on Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán and casually observed: “It’s nice to have a strong man running your country.” And for good measure, in a bizarre closing riff accompanied by hypnotic music, he again referred to those imprisoned for their part in the January 6 riot as “hostages”.
The crowd went home happy.
