I had the honor to attend the Ashburn rally for Donald Trump this morning on behalf of the 11th Congressional District Republican Committee.
Below is a pictorial review of the event:
Outside the event:
Protesters. Â I had to walk through them on the way in and way out. Â They were not rude, although there was some excitement while I was inside. Â And no, I do not want to speak to you “Alex Jones” guy…
I thought the “IDK Not Trump Tho” homemade sign was funny, and I told him so.
Entering the school the line literally stretched around the building. Â There were tons of young people. Â Thousands of people had to be turned away…fire safety…
Inside, before the event the place was very active. Â Tons of Republican activists from Loudoun County were in the VIP sections.
Some of us got to meet Mr. Trump:
Mr. Trump’s Speech covered many topics including renegotiating trade deals, responsible asylum and refugee practices, securing our borders, strengthening the military, building a conservative Supreme Court, and many other topics. Â MR. Trump’s son Eric spoke briefly. Â Of course there was a nice exchange with a Lt. Col., Ret. regarding his purple heart that the media has already twisted.
I should have taken more pictures of the crowd.  The energy was amazing.  Everyone was on their feet for the entire speech.  I also forgot to take a picture of the Marine Corps. dog who hung out at my feet for most of the speech.
This is big.  Trump’s crowds are outdrawing Clinton’s crowds by double or more. There is an air of confidence and competence that outdoes the media narrative when you are there in person.  This was a great event and part of a long diligent plan by the Trump campaign to win Virginia in November.  The NoVa Trump ground teams are nearly fleshed out, come join us and help put America First!
53 comments
Had nothing to do with the fire marshall. The auditorium only holds 850. Those outside didn’t have a chance to get in do to the capacity. It was well orchestrated to create an illusion of “demand”.
Riiiight Trump’s crowds are all illusionary. Keep telling yourself that, don’t worry, it will all be over in November, and you can reserve your ticket for the Trump inauguration in January.
You do realize that there are actual pictures both inside and outside the auditorium. In addition, there is capacity information in detail and your 850 number is likely from the Huffington Post rather than the capacity listed in the approval documents. Bottom line: Hillary couldn’t even fill a high school gym so the Fire Marshall, soon to be out of a job if his constituents have a brain, tried to embarrass Trump – it kind of didn’t work.
You obviously have never been inside that building. Keep b*tching about fire marshalls, pay no attention to the double digit lead Hillary has taken over Trump. Such a shame, Hillary is so beatable.
I’ve always tried to respect others, if my child is disruptive, by stepping away from the crowd until he/she calms. This is just a courtesy to those who have traveled to a rally, restaurant, concert, church, etc.
Glad you got to go. There is nothing like a Trump rally. And how exciting you got to meet the next POTUS! This made me laugh, “Trump’s crowds are outdrawing Clinton’s crowds by double or more”. Trump brings in people by the THOUSANDS, the Beast is lucky if she gets 100. Ya might want to rethink that statement:)
He cited some statistics from the previous twenty four hours that showed crowds of roughly 4-5 times that of Clinton, but I did not want to overstate so I left it vague.
Thanks for the report, Paul! Very much appreciate your on-the-spot account.
Please ignore the sour grapes jibbing of the #NeverTrumps! They’re just envious. And irrelevant. Trump WILL be elected, and their stubborness to get on board WILL cast them to the sidelines. Too bad for them.
#MakeAmericaGreatAgain
Thanks Connie!
Was it really an “honor” to attend the rally, or was that just appropriate cliche language? It just hit me as strange.
Probably an honor to meet the next President, and a privilege to attend the rally.
Poor kid, ruined for life by a know nothing nut like Trump. A traumatized dem voter around 18 years from now, proudly voting another Clinton into office.
Wha???
Trump traumatized the crying baby so much she will be a dem when she grows up.
Yes, he should have created a safe space where we could all have acknowledged the baby’s right to self-expression.
Clearly this grounds for a lawsuit.
I’d always thought ‘ruined for life’ meant the options available to her several months earlier.
Thanks for the photos and recap.
This is the overtaxed working middle class pitted against the wealthy/globalist influence peddlers and their welfare pawns. Trump is their symbol and the Republican Party, if it wishes to remain relevant, best take note.
Tim Huelskamp went down tonight, a very sweet victory for those fighting to save the country. People have tried to warn them and they refuse to listen. Buh-Bye Tim.
You mean the rally where Trump threw a baby out for crying? Inspiring.
Yes, it is inspiring for an actual adult to do such a thing. The me generation seems to have missed courtesy for others lessons.
Right, it takes a real man to insult a mother and tell her to take her baby out and mock her afterward. Save it.
I just read the news reports. Trump was interrupted and he made light of it initially. When the mother didn’t take the hint to leave, he followed it up with a more serious comment.
I’m guessing you have never been to church. It is quite common for a mother to shush a child or take a baby from the room without being asked. This is done as a courtesy to the pastor and the congregation listening to the sermon.
It is not surprising that a me generation mother hasn’t a sense of decency or courtesy to remove a wailing child. After all, she has rights (but no responsibilities).
Your comment is consistent with a generation of spoiled snowflakes (I mean no disrespect to real and natural snowflakes).
That’s exactly what happened. For those of you new parents, without the benefit of family or society, let me help you with your faux pas — when the baby is crying, that does not mean that the child wishes you to continue listening to the speaker. The baby wishes for you to devote sufficient attention to resolve the distress. This means AWAY from where the baby’s cry could be considered interruptive.
This really isn’t that hard, pretend it’s a movie theatre that somehow dropped a baby into your lap because you would never take a baby in to see Terminator 9 — when the baby cries, take it to where people aren’t — it is not the joyful chorale you seem to think, and the people glaring at you are not beaming either.
George Washington kept and constantly referred to a book of manners so he knew how to behave in polite society. This current generation never heard of good manners so they behave boorishly. What is impressive is that the bad behavior of a mother is somehow translated into it being Trunp’s fault.
One other tidbit. Mr Khan has written articles that state that sharia is superior to the Constitution. I guess he should have waved a Koran rather than the Constitution at the DNC. Just another con job by the socialist democrats.
Manners are the lubrication for a civil society (and booze and coffee.)
The dems tried political theatre, Trump don’t play dat!
Will Estrada described the situation accurately in a Facebook post. My take is very similar.
The mother was in the section closest to where I was standing. The baby started crying. Trump made some nice comments. The baby settled down. About a minute later the baby started crying again and the mother started making her way down the row to exit the auditorium. As she made it to the end of the row Trump saw her heading out and made the follow up comments as a joke. The audience laughed, and there was nothing mean spirited.
Most press accounts do not publish the first conciliatory remarks. I have seen a version with all of the comments published accurately. I have seen no press description that identifies that the mother was already exiting the auditorium at the time Trump made his follow up comments.
That’s more right, the second batch of crying was approaching the door
Did you watch the video? He told the woman he was alright with the baby, went back to speaking, and then turned around and told her to get out. Afterward, he began mocking her to the crowd.
I go to church every week. When a baby begins crying in mine, the mothers and daughters usually play “pass the baby” while the Pastor stands there grinning.
And another insult to try and remove the focus from the spin. I’ve heard it all, been insulted, cursed at, and threatened, and it still doesn’t change that Trump did something you can’t defend because your defense is “It wasn’t that bad” or “They deserved it.” Simple fact of the matter is, it was that bad and that woman didn’t deserve it. And no spin, no insults, is going to change that.
You have had to utterly concoct a rationale for your claim, and frankly it really insults anyone’s intelligence. This is the problem with people who simply despise Trump – they have to come up with something, anything – and the truth be damned. Your second paragraph is self justification as you have had to say something that is true sometime and not true at others. Playing pass the baby only works if there are others to play it with. The primary mechanism is to remove the baby. And, by the way, what would you expect a pastor to do since he will see the parents and the rest family every week – he is forced to be patient and most pastors acquiesce. But take this interchange out of church to an academic lecture, a group activity, or a rally with thousands of strangers – pass the baby is not going to work. I would be impressed if you were honest here but you are going to keep going because reason simply doesn’t compute with your emotional commitment to silliness. By the way, ——————
Based on Paul Prados comments, noted above, he was at the rally and saw the back and forth. The woman was leaving. Trump joked about the baby and the crowd laughed. Therefore, I take back my comments about lack of courtesy regarding her – she made the courteous decision to leave and not abuse the rally goers.
Please don’t respond. You have dug a hole and your attempts to get our are really unbelievable.
Right, I have no claim that insulting a woman and demanding she take her baby out after telling her it was okay is wrong. That’s nonsense.
I don’t have to come up with anything, Trump has gutted his own campaign, such that even former potential VP candidate Newt Gingrich is speaking against him.
I’m going to respond, for the amusement of it if nothing else.
You’re attacking me because you have no defense. It really is that simple, you can’t defend Trump so you take a swing instead. The problem? There’s to much to try and swing over, too many scandals, missteps, or outright inept action by Trump.
Either *defend* him, or cut it out. So far you have no argument, nothing besides “I disagree with you and I think you look funny” that you can add to the conversation here.
I say it again, defend Trump without the nastiness, or cut it out and let the subject drop.
The Trump-Hate is strong in this one, the Secretary will be pleased.
Oh indeed, I don’t support Trump and Trumpers say I support Clinton, I don’t support Clinton and Clinton drones say I support Trump. By that logic, I’m supporting both of them. Your logic doesn’t work.
Truly dizzying. By not supporting Trump, and not supporting Clinton, you show that your wisdom and insight can inspire others to take equally principled stands.
(Psssst, here’s a secret, only people here badmouthing Trump are the democrats, the rest are Republicans — you might want to go to blogs with donkeys if you want to enlighten more democrats.)
Actually, I have convinced several other people not to vote for Trump or Clinton. Doing pretty well at it since the reigning opinion is they are both utterly undeserving of the office.
Nice, but facts don’t support that. Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Erick Erickson, Ben Sasse, Newt Gingrich, Steven Brodie Tucker, Redstate, The Resurgent, the Bull Elephant, The Right Scoop, Conservative Review, The Transom, all Republican as can be.
By the way, you still haven’t answered the hole in your logic. Instead you switched to attacks yet again. Cut the crap.
Newt Gingrich disgusted with Trump?
I’m lost, what logic hole?
Bad Conduct? Define please.
..
When my adult son was a baby we always removed from him the venue (at least one of us) if he became too fussy. It seems that rule no longer applies.
Rule? That was your choice, not a rule. The bit of basic decency about respecting women with small children seems to have vanished though.
You have never heard of the concept of good manners thus you have just made up a rule of your own.
That was an insult towards me, made because your justification for Trump’s insults is weak and so you pivot to attack. Standard, old, tired, tactics when spin fails.
Absolutely no parenting experience eh?
And how exactly is it disrespect of women with small children?
Don’t stay stuck on stupid.
Actually, I do have experience with parenting, and public speaking. And that was insult number II that failed to detract from the Trumper’s equally failed defense of Trump.
Cool, so what did you do with your crying infant when in a quiet place?
And what did you do when you were a presidential nominee speaking to thousands of people and was interrupted by a crying baby?
And if you were insulted by my suggestion not to stay stuck on stupid, feel free to camp out there as long as you want.
After checking to see if the baby is hungry, wants a pacifier, or needs changing?
Singing and rocking in a quiet place.
In public? Humming and rocking.
By way, babies have interrupted several of the speeches I’ve been at. All of the politicians I’ve seen have had the basic sense to ignore the problem because they know that answering in a negative way, like Trump did, would make them look repugnant, especially to women voters.
I wasn’t insulted, I noted it was an insult but I quite frankly don’t care what is said about me by Trump supporters. Insults are a standard attempt at defending the indefensible, a tactic that fails by virtue of the fact that the position taken by the insulter is in defense of something that can’t be defended in the first place. As such, I just take them as a sign of weak argument and point them out to make that point.
An auditorium with thunderous applause and an amplified speech is not a quiet place, this is why .
Your response shows that you are not a parent, nice rhetoric though.
Trump can defend his own actions if/when he deems it necessary.
Your question was about quiet and loud places. Hence why I answered for both.
You don’t know me, or what I am. Though it is interesting to see you speak with such certainty on subjects, such as my life, that you know nothing about. And, I’m rather certain, in this case, even if I showed you photos you’d still stick by your position.
You will now, doubtless, demand I cough some photos up or utterly dismiss what I’m saying. But that it doesn’t matter either way you go about it. The truth doesn’t matter to you, it never did. What mattered was moving the point away from Trump and onto something you can attack.
Because it seems to can’t defend Trump, that’s the point. All offense, no ability to defend because his position or yours because isn’t defensible.
To sum up the above, I’m not playing the game. I’ve heard this song and done this dance. Either defend Trump without personal insults and attacks or drop it, because Trump quite clearly can’t defend himself.
My question that remains unanswered illustrates that you do not have the first hand experience of that of myself or Donald Trump.
I do not know you, your posts allow me to deduce all I need to about your position and your character.
I’m not demanding anything, your rhetoric here and above demonstrates the validity of my observation.
You weren’t insulted and said so above, now you accuse me of nonexistent personal attacks.
I was there, you were not, I KNOW what went down and I know what you posted.
I am sorry if you feel offended by my brilliant perception. Better?
It is common courtesy. It is even better to leave small children at home if at all possible.
Yes, which was later sacrificed and eaten by the lady squatting outside in handcuffs.
Do you think about what you post?
Joseph’s comment is like a bumpersticker on a car. The depth of thought is equal to the sum of the words on the bumper sticker. My favorite is coexist. Try telling that to ISIS who has told the Pope they intend to kill him if given a chance.
This Pope seems to be down with that.
There is a legend about the last Pope. It doesn’t end well for mankind.
I’m going to go with the previous Pope is still the belt holder. But there are those that say that ignorance is my lodestar.