Trump’s Wednesday appearance in Asheville, a predominantly liberal city, had some locals scratching their heads.
The campaign event took place at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium and also included Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson and Congressman Chuck Edwards. About 2,500 rally attendees made it inside the venue with several hundred others turned away at the door. The Trump campaign paid $82,000 to rent the venue, which is the smaller of the two at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center complex.
A common refrain from Asheville residents on social media was ‘why is he coming here?’
Eric Rodriguez, who works at a downtown brewery a few blocks from the rally, said he found Trump’s appearance “very strange.”
“I think it's pretty obvious that Asheville is kind of a Democratic haven, as far as North Carolina goes,” he said. “It's very liberal. It's very eclectic.”
“It is a little weird seeing a bunch of red hats walking around,” he added, referencing the signature red ‘Make America Great Again’ hats that were a common sight the day of the rally.
As someone who is gay and Mexican, Rodriguez said being around conservative and far-right voices reminded him of when he lived in rural South Carolina and “had to maneuver a bit differently.”
Asheville, he said, has been a “safe haven” for him and people of “different ethnicities, different sexuality and different preferences.”
Tyese Palladino, a bartender at The Rankin Vault, said “It really sucks," when asked about having the Trump rally in Asheville. Palladino said, due to traffic issues, it was really hard to get into work and that they didn’t feel safe downtown.
“The people chanting by were literally just saying ‘fight, fight, fight, fight.’ That was their chant. So I feel like it's a lot of hate in this town right now,” Palladino said.
“This town's known for peace and hippies. I’m super gay and a lot of people in this town are and I'm pretty sure this is, you know, very upsetting to all of them.”
Asheville resident Stu Helm had a more blasé perspective on the rally. Helm gives walking food tours downtown. This week, his tour happened to coincide with the Trump rally that took over large swaths of downtown.
He decided to carry out the tour on the other side of downtown, which he described as being as “quiet as Mayberry Street.”
“I feel like he's kind of trolling us a little bit by being here and the general consensus I've heard from my friends is ‘who cares?’ We wish he would go away,” Helm told BPR. “We don't even feel like going down there to protest. It's not worth our time and we don't want to give them the juice.”
By juice, Helm said he meant “attention.”
BPR checked in with Helm after the tour. He said it “went great.”
There was at least one Asheville Trump fan in attendance. Joshua Pressley talked about how much the event meant to him as he waited in the line at the snack bar.
Pressley said “it means the world” that Trump came to Asheville and described the former President as the “last hope to save what nation we have left.”
He added, “He’s a good dude. He’s a hard fighter.”
While Asheville residents reacted to Trump’s visit, the former President barely mentioned the area in his speech. Instead, he focused on the border wall and other issues in California, Alaska and Nevada.
He was especially fixated on San Francisco, where his opponent Kamala Harris lived and served, name checking the city eight times.
While he referenced North Carolina a few times, Trump never addressed issues specifically in Asheville or Western North Carolina.
In an email, State Representative Caleb Rudow commented on this detail.
“He didn’t mention Asheville or WNC once in his speech,” Rudow wrote. “Trump doesn’t care about folks in Western North Carolina who work hard to take care of their families and put food on the table. He works for billionaires and corporations funding his campaign."
Lilly Knoepp and Felicia Sonmez also contributed to this report.
