Jersey Shore’s MAGA faithful sleep on beach for front row at Trump rally
Not since the heyday of Snooki, Pauly D and The Situation’s MTV reality show, has the Jersey Shore seen such fandom.
The MAGA faithful were out in force on Saturday in Wildwood, New Jersey ahead of Donald Trump’s sunset rally with some sleeping for days in tents on the beach in hope of getting closer to the former president.
The Trump campaign says that it expected “tens of thousands” to turn out for the event, and city officials told ABC that 20,000 tickets had been sold.
Thousands of supporters were already gathering beach and along the boardwalk on Saturday wearing Trump masks, American flag-themed outfits, and pitching giant Trump 2024 flags while conditions remained on the cooler side after several days of rain. Long lines were forming, and bars and restaurants busy in the town, at a normally sleepy time in the off-season.
Mr Trump posted seveal pictures of the immense crowds to his Truth Social page, writing: “WHAT A CROWD! See you at 5:00 — MAGA2024!”
Mark Bellini, 63, of Brick, New Jersey, told the Daily Mail that he had been holding on to his 12th place in line since 5pm on Thursday.
“It was cold, it was raining. Yeah, it was wet. I used a plastic bag over my head in order to keep my spot,” he said.
Jodi Derstine, a 62-year-old nurse from Morristown, New Jersey, also told The Mail that she had arrived at 5am on Friday, and said that Mr Trump was “gonna save America”.
Mr Trump is expected to speak at the rally, on the beach near to the Wildwood boardwalk, at 5pm on Saturday. The former president has been packing his weekends with campaign events as he has spent much of the past four weeks inside a Manhattan courthouse where he is on criminal trial over alleged hush money payments to porn star, Stormy Daniels.
The former president is facing ongoing criminal and civil cases, some related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Mr Trump, the presumed Republican presidential candidate, is expected to face off against President Joe Biden in this November’s election.
Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said that the “tens of thousands” expected attendees would be a notable contrast to the number that typically show up for President Joe Biden’s political events, which he described as “eight circles, two of which are empty.”
The former president last appeared in New Jersey in January 2020, according to AP, when he attended an event with congressman Jefferson Van Drew, a former Democrat who switched to the GOP as a rebuke for Mr Trump’s first impeachment.
