Jersey Shore swamped with ‘80,000’ Maga supporters as Trump gets nasty, brands Biden a total moron
The Jersey Shore was swamped with Maga supporters as Donald Trump hit the stage in Wildwood for a sunset rally on the beach.
The former president arrived an hour-and-a-half late on Saturday at about 6.30pm local time for the event which was attended by 80,000 supporters, according to his campaign officials.
Thousands of fans gathered on the beach and along the boardwalk throughout the day wearing Trump masks and American flag-themed outfits.
They pitched giant Trump 2024 flags as conditions remained on the cooler side after several days of rain. Long lines formed and bars and restaurants were busy in the town at a typically sleepy time in the off-season.
Kicking off his speech Mr Trump vowed to win the long-time Democrat-held state of New Jersey.
“We love Wildwood. We’ve been here many times we love this place and is [there] nowhere else I’d rather be this beautiful evening. It is a nice one, right?” he said, to cheers from supporters.
“As you can see, today, we’re expanding the electoral map because we are going to officially play in the state of New Jersey. We’re going to win the state of New Jersey.”
His speech was filled with jibes including for President Joe Biden who he dubbed a “total moron”.
“You could take the 10 worst presidents in the history of our country, and add them up... and they haven’t done the damage to our country that this total moron has done,” Mr Trump said.
He got even nastier when he turned his attention to Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor overseeing his hush-money case in New York, and trial judge Juan Merchan. He slammed Mr Bragg as “Fat Alvin, corrupt guy” and called the judge “highly conflicted”.
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”.
A spokesperson for the city of Wildwood told the Associated Press that she estimated between 80,000-100,000 people had attended the rally of Mr Trump. However, the Trump campaign has been known to exaggerate crowd sizes in the past, and reporters on the scene questioned the numbers.
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.
He 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 Mr 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 Mr 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, when he attended an event with congressman Jefferson Van Drew, a former Democrat who had switched to the GOP as a rebuke for Mr Trump’s first impeachment.
