Thousands of Trump supporters gathered Monday to see the President and attend a campaign rally for South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster.
John Atkins of Sumter, South Carolina drove about 50 miles to see the president and he didn’t quite make it.
“I was five people from getting in the door,” Atkins said.
But Atkins wasn’t frustrated. He felt supported politically.
“It reassures me that I’m not alone. That when you sit on social media you’re not the only person that’s just reading this stuff, and feel like he’s fighting for you,” Atkins said. “That there’s millions of more people just like you that are in love with America, that are in love with Trump, that want the best for everybody and everything here.”
There were a lot of people who couldn’t get in. Some, like Atkins, got in their cars, but others stuck around to show their support for Trump, with cheers like, “Trump, Trump, Trump,” and shouts of, “Make America great again.”
Supporters were engaged by opponents of the president, and some of them cheered, “Y’all means all. No hate in our state.”
The president’s immigration policies were a key part of their protest.
Cassie Premo Steel, from Columbia, South Carolina, felt strongly.
“Not everyone agrees with the immoral policy of locking up kids in internment centers,” Premo Steel said.
And so it went for a few hours.
The president's plane was delayed by storms in the area Monday evening, so voices of protest and support of the president outside the school lasted longer than expected.
There was also a debate among conservatives. Sam Hoidel and Austin Via got into a discussion about how to improve the Republican Party.
“Socially liberal, fiscally conservative sort of brand of Republican isn’t long for this world, I don’t think,” Hoidel said.
“I was saying this at the beginning, the Republican Party needs to reform,” Via said.
But they agree the party is so divided that Democrats could take advantage.
