‘The Trump Phenomenon’

Dallas greets candidate with cheers and jeers

Kiley Tauber and Johnny Millar

Neelam Bohra, Co-Editor

Donald Trump arrived to chants of “USA, USA” from an enthusiastic crowd of almost 15,000 on Monday at the American Airlines Center in promotion of his 2016 presidential run.

One of his opening speakers received tremendous cheers when she proclaimed, “There are one of two reasons all of you came—because you want to make America great again, or because you want to experience the Trump phenomenon!”

The Trump phenomenon. He mentioned it himself multiple times, acknowledging how news is “All Trump, all the time” and gave himself credit for news channel ratings being “through the roof.” He claims he is a different kind of candidate.

“These guys go around giving the same speech hundreds of times,” Trump said in reference to the other candidates. “I like Carly, I like Ben, I like so many others. But nobody’s going to be able to do the job I’m going to do.”

The crowd jumped to their feet more than once with deafening cheers in response to his statements.

“We call ourselves the silent majority?” Trump said. “No. We are the noisy, the aggressive, the wanting to win majority.”

His began his speech with numerous references to his economic stance, such as “I’m self-loaning my campaign—I’m not taking any blood money.”

After a 15 minute long introduction, he plowed on into the problem of illegal immigration and managed to gain applause after every statement.

“Before I came here, I saw, on the news, a family decimated,” he said, “their daughter torn apart by illegal immigrants. Many gang members, these rough guys, are illegal immigrants. We have to stop this.”

His idea to stop this rotated around building a wall on the U.S. and Mexican border. He referred to the West Bank Wall in Israel, saying that if it worked there, it would work here also.

“This wall won’t be any wall,” he said. “It will be a fancy wall. I’ll even have my name written on it. But, I will make Mexico pay for it. If anyone else tried to make them, if any other candidate tried, it wouldn’t work. When you have Trump negotiating for you, they will pay.”

This gained another round of his supporters chanting “USA, USA.” However, just outside the American Airlines Canter, hundreds of Latinos gathered in protest against these exact ideas.

Trump also brought China and Japan into the mix, stating how the U.S. “sends back the Yale graduates, the Harvard graduates that we need, and keeps the criminals.” He went on even further, saying “We are a dumping ground for the rest of the world.”

He moved the end of his speech back to America and domestic policy, raising the crowd’s energy one last time.

“Our military will be strong and powerful,” he said. “The American dream is dead, but I can make it bigger, better, and stronger than before. Let’s take back our country! We can make America great again!”

Pouring out of the stadium after the rally ended, his supporters held him in high regard.

“I thought it was inspirational,” said supporter Yarick Molina. “I feel so lucky. I got to shake his hand. He was so energetic, it was really exciting.”

Others, however, felt less swayed of his abilities. One bystander described his speech as “Too much slogan, not enough content.” Either way, his “phenomenon” managed to affect people.

“He was very energetic,” said supporter Jerry Lybarger. “I have to be convinced he’s going to do what he says he’ll do before he’s got my vote. I want to know if he’ll follow through. We’ll see how it goes.”

 

EDITORIAL: Trump should stick to reality TV