GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — At his penultimate rally in Pittsburgh before heading for Grand Rapids, Donald Trump said “the only way we can blow it is if you blow it,” blaming his supporters should he lose on Election Day.
In Grand Rapids — read the quote by a reporter as they waited for him well past midnight, more than two hours late — at least some of his supporters suggested Trump was the one blowing it.
Becky Morton, 68, who traveled here from Greensburg, Indiana, for “the last opportunity of a lifetime,” said if Trump loses, it will be because of “the women — the women’s rights things.” And she pointed to his Madison Square Garden rally.
“They should have vetted him more,” she said of the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” “I did find fault on that.”
Trump didn’t just blame his supporters on Monday — he left them waiting in swingy Kent County, with a post-midnight arrival. Rows and rows of seats across the upper bowl of Van Andel Arena, home to the Griffins, a minor league hockey team, sat empty, with a funereal black cloth draped over them. Rain fell outside.
“Doing four of these in one day is a little difficult, but not really because the love has been incredible,” Trump said when he finally took the stage.
Trump’s rallies —the signature feature of his rise— have been noticeably more sparsely attended in the final days of the campaign. In Greensboro, North Carolina, on Saturday, for example, an entire upper level of seating was cloaked by black curtains; the back of the arena, barren.
“Trump is his own worst enemy,” said a real estate developer named Randy who traveled here from Northwest Indiana and declined to give his last name because of the nature of his work. “If he was a more conventional candidate, he’d be cruising. He says stupid things and the press takes them out of context. But he still says stupid things.”
On Monday, Trump’s closing message careened from blaming his supporters for a potential loss to lamenting the loss of his rallies. “It’s sad,” he said. “We’ll never have this. But we’ll have other get togethers.”
Kamala Harris’ massive final event in Philadelphia featured Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga, and it dwarfed Trump’s final day on the trail, ending in Grand Rapids.
Inside the arena, Tom Jankowski, 55, of Arlington Heights, Illinois, simply said of Trump’s final days: “He’s tired.”
Harris might not win the election. But she won the day.
We ask ourselves every night: Who won the day? Now we’ll tell you — every day. Last night, it was Trump. .
