By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-11-18 12:46:29 | Updated at 2024-11-22 10:06:18
3 days ago
It was a misty autumn evening, unusually warm, with rain falling softly through the wind. I stepped out of my cab and hurried towards Van Andel Arena, one of the largest public venues in Michigan, located in Grand Rapids, the state’s second-largest city.
The intersection was blocked by police vans and the nearby street was lined with “Make America great again” merchandise stalls. Before me stretched a sea of people who had donned colourful MAGA hats, jackets and flags.
Thousands had gathered from across the battleground state to see the man they believed could restore America’s greatness – Donald Trump. It had become a tradition for the third-time candidate to hold his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids. The last two times he spoke, his rallies continued into the early hours of Election Day. This time around, he wasn’t expected to end early either.
The rally was perfect for my assignment that day: to capture the energy, voices and atmosphere of the election on the ground. I decided to approach a few attendees – mostly men of various ages and races – to ask what brought them to the rally.
As I was about to approach a young woman wearing a MAGA hat, a man across the street shouted, “Traitor Trump!” and disappeared into the dark. The MAGA crowd reacted with fury and disgust. A man in his late 50s, looking in the direction of the man who had vanished, yelled back, “F*** Kamala Harris!” as a group of teenage boys egged him on.
In New York and Washington, I heard about families growing apart and friendships ending over political ideologies. However, this was the first time I had witnessed such raw anger and division first-hand.
