LISBON — Unless the pollsters are botching it big time, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump faces long odds of pulling off an upset to claim the White House — or even putting Maine in his win column.
But on a rainy Friday, there’s no doubt he had much of Lisbon in his pocket.
Taking the stage nearly two hours late at Open Door Bible Baptist Church’s Christian Academy gymnasium, Trump got an enthusiastic welcome from 1,000 of his faithful supporters, who cheered his denunciations of Democrat Hillary Clinton and vows to “make America great again.”
“He’s a great leader and he’s awesome,” said sixth-grader Mya Desjardins of Lewiston, who attends the school. She said she likes Trump a lot.
“It’s wild. It’s good for the town. It’s good for the state,” said Evan Desjardins, Mya’s father.
Bob Desjardins of Sabattus said the real-estate-developer-turned-politician’s speech was “just exactly what I expected” with many of the talking points Trump has hammered home repeatedly for months.
Still, he said, “It’s what we need. We need someone like him.”
The largely local crowd, which arrived by midday to make the cut for getting into the small venue, was nearly all white and included many young people, including several dozen students from the private Christian academy.
“We’re here by divine appointment,” said David Garnett, the church’s pastor. “Only God could have done something like this.”
“What a surprise,” said state Sen. Garrett Mason of Lisbon, who had as big a role as anyone in bringing Trump to town. “Who would have believed that the next president of the United States was going to wrap up his campaign right here?”
Voters head to the polls Nov. 8 to elect who should succeed two-term President Barack Obama, as well as vote on a number of other key races and ballot questions. Polls show Clinton is likely to win Maine, but one electoral vote in the 2nd Congressional District remains hotly competitive.
Mason said Maine “is on the map” in this year’s presidential showdown and “could be the decider” between Trump and Clinton, though that scenario is remote at best.
Trump, though, said he will win both Maine and the country as a whole. Most pollsters give him a less than 10 percent chance of pulling that off.
Kam Koss of Lewiston said he doesn’t necessarily agree with Trump on everything, but he admires the GOP nominee as “somebody who’s real.”
“He’s not someone who can be bought,” said David Farnum of Lisbon, a 22-year Army reservist. He said Trump can handle money and get the country’s debt under control without “completely lying all the time.”
Farnum said he also likes Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan and his words on a 2005 taped interview about grabbing women by their private parts.
Koss said he’s not sure why Trump chose to make a fifth trip to Maine when he appears to be trailing in more significant states, but “maybe he thinks his numbers are low” here and could be pumped up.
“Sadly it’s hard to run against somebody like her,” Koss said.
Wayne Lavers of Lisbon said that “if North Carolina goes by the side” and favors Clinton, New Hampshire, and Maine could wind up being “real important” to Trump’s chances.
Not everyone who came is in Trump’s camp.
Tabby and Brian Ingalls came with two babies in tow to spread the word of “the love of Christ” to others.
“We don’t agree with Trump,” Brian Ingalls said. “We think he’s a misogynist. How he treats women is disheartening.”
He said for Trump to have a shot with him, the Republican nominee needs to make a heartfelt apology for what he’s said and done to women.
Trump’s scheduled 3 p.m. rally didn’t get going until nearly 5 p.m. because the candidate’s plane was delayed for a couple of hours earlier in the day before a New Hampshire event that preceded his stop in Maine.
By the time Trump arrived, his Rolling Stones-heavy rally soundtrack had played “Let’s Spend the Night Together” at least five times. Some of those in attendance were beginning to wonder if perhaps the song would come true, if not quite in the same sense that Mick Jagger intended.
But the weariness of the long wait evaporated quickly as Trump and his entourage popped through a rear door and headed for the stage to explosive applause.
“Some enthusiastic crowd,” Trump said as he took the microphone.
Mason pointed out that Lisbon is famous for its three-decades-old Moxie Festival dedicated to the popular soda that Mainers long ago adopted as a favorite.
“We can put a little moxie in Donald Trump’s march to the White House,” Mason said.
Trump’s vows at the rally
To block illegal immigration and the flow of drugs, Trump promised to build a wall on the Southern border “and make Mexico pay for it.”
He said he will rebuild the military and send some business to Bath Iron Works to bolster the U.S. Navy’s ship count.
Trump said he’ll destroy ISIS and avoid war with Russia in Syria. He said Clinton “wants to get into World War III over Syria.”
“I’m going to keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out” of the United States, he promised, and suspend the refugee program for people fleeing Syrian war.
He said he will repeal and replace the “job-killing Obamacare” with a health care system that works.
Trump said he will “drain the swamp” in Washington and “take our government back from the donors and the special interests” by imposing term limits, banning contributions from lobbyists and making it tough for retired lawmakers to move into cushy lobbying jobs.
He said he’ll renegotiate or junk trade deals he said have harmed America and sent many manufacturers overseas.
Trump said he’ll make the country safer and vowed to lower a national murder rate he said is at a 45-year high.
“They won’t tell you that,” Trump said.
Actually, though, the FBI this summer said the homicide rate in the United States is the lowest it has been since 1963.
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