MAGA faithful blow off polls in Michigan, insist ‘Trump’s got it made.’
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
POTTERVILLE, Michigan — Inside a hulking steel warehouse where Donald Trump rallied his supporters on Thursday, the former president’s backers sweltered in the heat — and gave no oxygen, either, to the idea that their candidate arrived in this battleground state weakened by Kamala Harris’ ascent.
None said they believed recent polling showing Trump slipping behind Harris here . Nor could they stomach the latest Fox News polling showing that, entering the crucial post-Labor Day stretch of the campaign, the vice president had improved her position over President Joe Biden against Trump in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.
And none could envision a world where they wake up on Nov. 6 and Trump is not the winner; if he isn’t, they say, Harris has either cheated or the election has been rigged.
“The media would tell you that Harris is winning, but the heart of America will tell you that Trump’s got it made ,” said Kirk Deatrick, who said he stopped trusting Fox News when the network parted ways with Tucker Carlson.
He added of Democrats, “I think if they don’t cheat, I think he’ll win by a huge amount,” predicting an 80-20 margin of victory for Trump “if it was a fair and honest election, and illegal people don’t vote and they don’t use cheating.”
The rank and file’s certainty about Trump’s standing is at odds with Trump’s own, private concerns about the state of the race — and those of his allies. And it reflects a MAGA base that, far from adjusting to the shifting dynamics of the race, is digging in, and poised to protest any result other than a Trump victory come November.
“We need God’s help, and I’m praying he’ll transition this thing peacefully, but if not, that’s where I come in,” said 62-year-old Richard McLeod, who said he was a member of two Michigan militias. He added: “I’m standing my ground. I’m fighting ‘til I die. And I want to make the other side die for their cause.”
In more than a dozen interviews awaiting Trump’s appearance here, Trump loyalists said they paid no credence to a bevy of nonpartisan surveys showing Harris gaining on if not outright beating Trump, surging in fundraising and arresting his momentum accrued through much of the summer.
“It’s kind of like the rabbit and the sloth,” said Dan Danger, a 67-year-old retired truck driver of Hartford, who wore a camouflage Trump 2024 hat and a red, white and blue T-shirt featuring no fewer than 31 Trump faces emblazoned on it. “Have you ever seen a sloth? They have no brain. They work really slow. And that’s Harris.”
To a person, none said they would believe a result in which Harris was the winner on Election Day.
These voters’ confidence in their candidate belied public polling in their own state of tossup Michigan: A pre-Democratic convention poll for AARP by Trump’s own pollster Tony Fabrizio and one of Biden’s pollsters John Anzalone found the race tied at 48 percent, while a post-convention poll by The Hill/Emerson had Harris up by 2 points.
But his supporters here aren’t even conceding the race is close. In fact, to talk to the Trump faithful here is like entering an alternate political universe in which Trump is not already winning but cruising toward a landslide.
Trump on Thursday continued his long-standing effort to fuel that belief. He told the crowd that he was leading in the polls “by a lot” and that recent polling was “rigged.” And, as he has previously, he fixated on the size of his crowd.
“I got thousands of people, by the way, outside trying to get in. I never — they never said Trump’s a great speaker. I don’t even want that. But I must be a great speaker, right? We got thousands of people. No, we got thousands and thousands.” (In fact, there were not thousands and thousands just outside the warehouse; instead a few law enforcement officials idled, and lining the road, maybe a few hundred took in the scene, though they brought their own chairs and did not expect to get inside.)
There was, though, a delta between the MAGA faithful and the more establishment members of the party in the warehouse.
“A dead heat,” Michigan GOP Chair Pete Hoekstra, Trump’s former ambassador to the Netherlands, said of what the polls show. “Michigan is always close.”
Hoekstra found himself on the phone with Trump a week and a half ago, he said. Trump wanted to know whether the endorsement of the former Detroit Democratic Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who served time in connection with a conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice, would resonate nationally.
“And I told the president, ‘I don’t care,’” Hoekstra said. “He said, ‘What do you mean you don’t care?’ I said, ‘Mr. President, you asked me to win Michigan. That’s what I’m focused on.’”
Russ Jennings, chair of the GOP in Michigan’s Jackson County, admitted Trump could be more focused on the issues: “The economy. The economy. The economy. And immigration,” he said.
And then there was the view from outside the building where the rally was held. Far from the feverish crowd and a few hundred yards from the warehouse, on a hillside in front of a Dollar General, Jessica Chamberlain, a retired deputy sheriff, stood among a hundred well wishers spread out waiting to greet Trump’s motorcade.
“It’s kind of close,” she said of the race. “Some of our friends who are women are just voting for a woman.”
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In case anyone is still wondering just how out of touch, delusional, uninformed, and dangerously stupid MAGA is.
oh no, an army of maga knuckle draggers wearing camo, scavenging roadkill, and eating instant mac and cheese...
... varmint cong.
He added of Democrats, “I think if they don’t cheat, I think he’ll win by a huge amount,” predicting an 80-20 margin of victory for Trump “if it was a fair and honest election, and illegal people don’t vote and they don’t use cheating.”
See the maga have been laying the groundwork following the nonstop lies since the former 'president' convicted felon and rapist lost last time BIGLY. These have been their talking points how the Democrats will win - illegals by the millions voting 'and they don't use cheating' - don't use cheating - who talks that way except inbred maga morons?
“It’s kind of like the rabbit and the sloth,” said Dan Danger, a 67-year-old retired truck driver of Hartford, who wore a camouflage Trump 2024 hat and a red, white and blue T-shirt featuring no fewer than 31 Trump faces emblazoned on it. “Have you ever seen a sloth? They have no brain. They work really slow. And that’s Harris.”
Says a brainless maga moron
no shortage in sight...
That guy doesn't know his fables. It's the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise won because slow and steady wins the race. The hare was out fucking around instead of focusing on the goal. And tortoises are smart
Fucking idiot - Yeah I kind of glossed over it at the time - never thought about it - but yeah, the tortoise and the hare.
Where did this shithead come up with the rabbit and the sloth? What a moron.
That can't be said often enough about the former 'president' and his cult - fucking morons, brainless maga morons
He has to be one of them poorly educated. I read Aesop's fables in grade school
We joke about idiocracy but its not much of a joke anymore. That may be Trumps biggest impact on history, he created a sub nation of morons.
The morons were there already - trump became their leader who shares their no values or morals
The stupid/ignorant sub nation was always there.
Fox, Rush and Trump just gave it a voice.
The bell curve explains much.
maga is on the wrong side of the bell curve on that graph...
This started well before trmp. Think the Moral Majority. They made it ok to stay ignorant and fearful of education. trmp magnified those ideas. Remember? He loves the poorly educated
Do Democrats not?
beneath them or something?
Ah yes. the 'moral' majority - the alleged 'compassionate conservatives' I believe - they've been around for a long time under different slogans or catchphrases over time but the same peoples.
you remember jerry falwell, the dead thumper guy whose thumper son likes to hide in the closet and spank the monkey while watching his wife get raw dogged by the pool boy...
spank, spank, spank... "oh geezus" ... spankity, spank, spank ...
They're all a bunch of perverts.
I literally laughed out loud at 2.4.3 and 2.4.4.
no need to fabricate salacious stories about rwnj thumpers when the truth is pure comedy...
Same morals as their dear cult leader
Difficult to grasp how demented these MAGA are.
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Saw this yesterday at the beach, in Biden’s hometown. What is wrong with these people?
Scranton, PA?
I saw the flag version yesterday.
I’ll let you figure it out.
Sweeney’s Beach provides access to Lackawanna River for canoeing, kayaking and fishing. What did you do there?
I think inbreeding plays a large role.
One of these days you’re going to say something funny. Not there yet. Baby steps …
Whatever shop that is - I would never shop there.
Inbred hateful ignorant morons.
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NT is lucky to have you here to correct all these horribly damaging inaccuracies. Thank the lord for your snark.
The tchotchke shop has a million things, 99% of which were just benign and sometimes funny. There were a depressing number of redneck gun porn tee shirts though.
Typical NT hyperbole.
Maybe you can teach me the difference between a taunt and a valuable comment.
I’m not taunting you, I’m just being honest. You’re not funny. Period.
I didn't feel taunted, did you?
“Maybe you can teach me the difference between a taunt and a valuable comment.”
Some just can’t be taught. Some, in their bubble, can only believe in their own definition of relevance.
Enjoy the loneliness of your bubble, for the comments offered are less ‘valuable’ and only comic.
And yes, this is a taunt.
There seems to be no need to sell such garbage then.
I don't recall claiming any special relevance.
Are you here for companionship?
Funny, I don't feel taunted. I hoped you aren't ticketed.
trmp has never been and will never be a hippie
He’s starting a new trend: braindeadhead.
It's funny how the polls only matter when trump is leading them.
Did they matter two months ago to you?
Am I the subject of the article?
Why don't you just answer?
Why don't you follow the rules of this site? Members are not the subject.
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Drinker asked me...
Seriously, you need to learn to follow a thread and mind your own business.
The subject of your comment was trump poll watchers, I wondered if you were different.
Yes, he asked a common question. Doesn't make you the subject.
I followed the thread perfectly. Do you understand how public forums work?
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Do you?
Like Mean Girls only dealing with 5th grade bullies
I find them childish and without any merit but obviously most of this site disagree and enjoy them.
I think the concept of Trump worship is moronic. Sorry. And since so many people worship him the word "moron" will inevitably come up.
Many of them in the Midwest were Dem voters to include supporting Obama. Progressives didn’t make fun of them until Trump.
yes, for me, as i was concerned , much, with Trump vs Biden, but feel much better with Harris Walz ticket, and Trump panicking, and showing signs of great concern himself, it is showing, as it should to the ego i.d.'d Trumpullthinskin fore shore write over his head, and easy as pie, in my round about way, for i might not have an angle right, for acutely obtuse is my Gosh Given Right, angle to grind
width a rite angle grinder
Oh Waah!
Poor poor pitiful old MAGAs! Everybody treats them so bad!
That is not true overall. Poor uneducated white people have increasingly voted for the gop and against their own interests since at least Nixon and Reagan and been ridiculed for it...
MAGA's self pity and victimhood is though, unprecedented!
And they're boys
true - that's where the bullies comes in - funny I don't usually associate girls with bullying per se
Oh, I do. I knew plenty of them in high school. I work with a big bully today
I had to clean my laptop screen after that one.
Indeed, trump has the 2020 election all locked up.. LOL
It was more the part about Tucker that got me
Portions of 3.2 were locked to prevent it from getting worse. Some comments were responded to But it has gone far enough. .
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Thread 7 removed for meta.
Polls this far out are pointless.
Polls are useless on almost any day, ask Hillary, lol.
My first belly laugh of the day, Kirk Deatrick, comedian. Who knew?
... all the way down the rabbit hole.
I see 3 GOP election deniers were ordered to pay $1 million for deliberately having two outside companies contracted to check out Dominion voting machines, The local Fulton County PA court, then the PA Supremes ordered them stopped and they still allowed one company to possess and investigate some of the voting "booths".
Those units were decertified and its up to the County to replace them, Pennsylvania will not pay for replacements.
The three peeps were found liable for all court costs and attorney's fees to date
And they still think there was cheating.
There is nothing that will convince some people of something they know is true. The rabbit hole just goes deeper.
hopefully that settlement covers the cost of replacement machines.
meh, we got tina peters... ... the poster girl of maga stupidity. contests the election results in an election she won.
I believe Fulton County is on the hook for that unless they charge the GOP and it's people.
Trump won Fulton County 6,824 to Biden's 1,085.
2020b Certified Results.pdf (fulton.pa.us)
The three should get the "domb focks" of the decade award.
SMH
tina got stashed in a texas safe house by mike lindell, so there's a lot more meat on the bone to do a made for streaming movie...