When Donald Trump visits the Coachella Valley on Saturday, it will be a rare chance for supporters in California — the furthest thing from a presidential swing state — to experience one of the hallmarks of modern politics on their home turf: the Trump rally.
While the barrage of TV coverage of these events over the past nine years has given Trump lovers, haters and nearly everyone in between at least some idea of what to expect from his visit, cable news clips and YouTube compilations can only tell you so much about what is often described as one of the more unique spectacles in politics.
To provide a more full picture of what to expect, The Desert Sun reviewed recent news coverage of the former president's rallies and the elements that have come to define them. Here's what we found.
1. Long waits are to be expected, and later arrivals can be turned away.
Trump's rallies attract large crowds (even if they are sometimes not as large as he claims) and reports of long lines, lengthy waits and people being turned away are common in reports on the events.
Recent news reports in several outlets have described lines stretching for blocks and sometimes as long as a mile.
The form to request tickets to Trump's Coachella rally states that admission is available on a "first come first serve basis," and recent reports suggest that capacity is often reached. The Reno Gazette-Journal reported that a rally held in Las Vegas in mid-September reached capacity, although people were let in one at a time as others left.
For an August rally at an arena in suburban Phoenix, attendees told The Arizona Republic that they waited hours to get in, with some deciding to give up and head home.
Among them was Terrence Feller, 62, who came from the city of Casa Grande to see the former president with his daughter. They saw the long line and decided to turn around, especially after speaking with one attendee who arrived at 9 a.m. and only entered the arena after 1 p.m.
“It has to be a mile,” he said. “After seeing how long the line is, we decided to turn around and go back to Casa Grande.”
2. Trump is rarely on time.
Adding to what already tends to be a lengthy affair is that Trump often goes on stage much later than scheduled.
News reports show Trump has sometimes started speaking over an hour after he was scheduled to do so, although his arrival on stage has been more timely in other instances. However, viewers are typically treated to a series of speeches from other major local Republican figures before Trump takes the stage as the main event.
But the delayed starts, combined with the lengthy waits to get in, and extensiveness of the speeches themselves mean people can often be seen leaving the rallies early, as described by The Washington Post in a story published this week:
"Most stay. But Trump often runs late and goes long, prompting many to bow out because of other responsibilities, priorities or, sometimes, waning patience and interest, according to Washington Post interviews and observations across dozens of events. Some said they wanted to beat traffic or had work the next day. Others complained about sound quality. One man wanted to go home to his French bulldog. Another needed to get home to his daughter. A third had a Yorkie with him that started acting out. A fourth man said his phone died."
3. He will likely talk for awhile.
Trump likes to go long in his speeches, as America was reminded during his 93-minute July Republican National Convention speech, which broke his own record for longest acceptance speech given by a candidate at a convention.
Reports suggest Trump has taken a similar approach to his rallies, particularly recently. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that his speech at a Sunday Wisconsin rally clocked in at about two hours while one held in Nevada last month clocked in at 90 minutes.
Those wondering if the high temperatures expected on Saturday could lead to a shorter speech can look to Trump's June Las Vegas rally, which was held in triple-digit heat and saw six people taken to a hospital. That speech lasted about an hour, according to The New York Times.
A recent Washington Post story quoted one person who has spoken to Trump and recounted that the former president has told advisers that after people stand for so long and wait for so long, he needs to give them something more than a “boring policy speech." The speechwriters craft remarks that are usually designed to go for 60 to 90 minutes, a campaign adviser said, but they know Trump will veer repeatedly off the script.
4. Known for being rambling, Trump's speeches seem to have become even more unpredictable recently.
While Trump's speeches have long been known for their fiery nature and often controversial content, the former president is also known for employing a freewheeling speaking style that is unique among presidential candidates and that seems to be becoming only more prevalent.
A New York Times report focused on the fiery and wandering nature of his recent speeches, saying: "He rambles, he repeats himself, he roams from thought to thought — some of them hard to understand, some of them unfinished, some of them factually fantastical."
The story continued: "He voices outlandish claims that seem to bemade up out of whole cloth. He digresses into bizarre tangents about golf, about sharks, about his own“beautiful” body. He relishes“a great day in Louisiana”after spending the day in Georgia. He expresses fear that North Korea is“trying to kill me”when he presumably means Iran. As late as last month, Mr. Trump was still speaking as if he were running against President Biden, five weeks after his withdrawal from the race."
Another recent Times story explained that like most politicians, Trump often repeats themes and anecdotes from speech to speech. One of the rally routines and set pieces it sighted was “The Snake,” an anti-immigrant poem Mr. Trump has recited since his 2016 campaign. The outlet also reported that Trump frequently polls rallygoers about new nicknames for Harris and Biden and often "likens migrants to the fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter."
The paper also completed a computer analysis that said Trump "uses 32% more negative words than positive words now, compared with 21% in 2016" and swears 69% more often than he did when he first ran. A study by Stat, a health care news outlet, producedsimilar findings.
5. You can find Trump's face on just about anything, particularly if it's in-your-face or vulgar.
If there's one surefire sign of an impending Trump rally, its the hordes of merchandise vendors that typically descend on the area several days before Trump has even landed on the ground.
Michigan's Fox17 news reported on July 19 that striped tents and folding tables stocked with merchandise had popped up across Grand Rapids ahead of a rally planned in the city the next day.
The outlet reported that many of the vendors have been following Trump from event to event, with an employee of one Florida-based company saying he had traveled from Mississippi to Minnesota selling Trump stuff.
While merchandise booths have long been a fixture of major political rallies, the offerings at Trump's rally tend to have a different character then those at other politicians' events.
Popular items include "(Expletive) Joe Biden" shirts (which some outlets report have remained common even after Biden dropped out of the race) and items referring to the new nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, with sexually degrading words like "hoe."
Following the recent assassination attempts against Trump, many vendors have also been stocking items that refer to the events in defiant or mocking terms — merchandise with the famous image of the bloodied Trump raising his fist, or else depicting the former president raising two middle fingers with the words "You Missed" have become ubiquitous.
“It's not like you couldn't find a guy standing outside the RNC in 2012 selling some misogynistic Hillary stuff," Republican strategist Tim Miller told NPR this year. "It was there, but just the intensity of it, just how crass it is, it's definitely a category difference.”
The outlet reported that crassness has been there from Trump's first campaign, with vendors in 2016 selling shirts reading, “Hillary sucks, but not the way Monica does.”
6. The vibe is like a megachurch service, carnival and concert in one.
Much has been written about the unique tone and fan fervor of these events, which commenters often say can feel just as much like sporting events or even religious services as political rallies.
An April Reuters story described Trump's rallies as "a defining feature of his presidential campaigns: all-day spectacles blending evangelical revivalist meeting and carnival," which an unnamed campaign aide told the outlet are "designed to deliver an emotional experience to his base and bring new backers into the fold."
Earlier this year, NPR's Danielle Kurtzleblen wrote that the rallies demonstrate how for many Trump supporters, his movement isn't just about politics but a core part of their identities.
"A Trump rally has the feel of an all-day pep rally mixed with a megachurch service — except with Trumpism as the religion," she wrote. "The rallies are places where a movement largely defined by grievance can be together, away from opponents — not to mention assertions that Trump lies and is harmful to democracy."
She reported that many Trump supporters she spoke to at a March rally in Georgia viewed themselves as marginalized underdogs and thought Trump was as well.
Meanwhile, Slate's Jen Golbeck described several Trump rallies she has attended across the country as "a mix of jubilation, community, rebellion and darkness." Outside was a carnival-like atmosphere with Trump and MAGA flags everywhere, street performers, food stands and people with coolers drinking beer as if tailgating at a ballgame.
"There is a bond between the attendees similar to what you might find at an arena concert, where people revel in their shared fandom," she wrote. "There is also a palpable sense of relief among the attendees that they can finally stop worrying about defending their support for Trump and relax among ‘their’ people. Aggressive defiance is infused with the party feel."
