I invite you to experience an American Freedom Tour with Donald J. Trump if you have any inclination to attend one in your area. I have only been to two events with President Donald Trump as a headline speaker.  He was the top draw from CPAC two years ago, which I attended.  And yesterday he drew thousands of Texans to Austin at the American Freedom tour.  While I did rearrange an entire vacation to see him, I hardly think this makes me a cultist.  

Driving around Austin over the last several weeks, there were several billboards around town advertising the American Freedom Tour on May 14th.  I suggested to my husband that I was interested in attending but wasn’t sure.  It is surprising to many who know me, as an extrovert, that I really, really hate crowds.  I think many of us can agree also, these events tend to draw some more radical elements of the conservative crowd.  However, when one of my girlfriends invited me to go with her and her husband, I enthusiastically said yes! 

I wasn’t alone.  As our local television station reported, several thousand attended the American Freedom Tour in Austin with me:

My poor husband was reluctantly dragged with me, as was my girlfriend’s boyfriend.  While there, I met several men who were roped into attending because of their wives or girlfriends.  I find this interesting given the narrative that suburban women hate The Donald.  In fact, most of the most enthusiastic attendees I saw were women.  If the whole kerfuffle over the potential Roe v. Wade being overturned might dampen female support for the GOP, I certainly didn’t see that displayed at the American Freedom Tour in Austin.

In fact, while perusing Twitter for this post, most of the twitter feeds were from women:

Today was seriously one of the most eye opening experiences! Our country might not be the best country right now but we can make it great again!!

— Ashley Hoppe (@Ahopp007) May 15, 2022

https://twitter.com/TeacherResearc1/status/1525659538938011649

You know what I also didn’t see?  Protests.  In deep blue Austin, I expected to see a decent showing of naysayers.  I saw and heard a couple of hecklers to be sure, but frankly, I saw more reporters than protesters.  Sound familiar? We saw the same shades at the Capital Rally last September in Washington. This leads me to believe that any angst folks had post January 6th is done.  People might have all kinds of emo about that day, but they are well overshadowed by the awfulness of our current president and the pain they are feeling at the pump, the grocery store, and their pocketbook.  Any animus they might feel about Donald Trump isn’t enough to get them off their sofa to rail at people who still support him!

What I did find were people still madly in love with one of the most interesting figures of our time.  My enthusiasm about attending the event itself was witnessing whole families and like-minded conservatives rallying around the concept of freedom, not the Ultra Maga King himself.  Below is a whole family spending an afternoon in Austin in support of conservative values:

Additionally, while wandering around, I ran into two young women and their male counterpart in red, white and blue regalia.  I asked them how old they were and what brought them to the American Freedom Tour.  They are all nineteen years old and attend The University of Texas.  I jokingly asked them how many conservatives are allowed on campus these days.  The young man kidded back that they number in the double digits at least!  As to what brought them to the American Freedom Tour?  They told me they wanted to support the concepts of conservative values.  They also told me that several of their friends were “disappointed we are attending, but we decided to come anyway.”  When I said I was proud of them for standing up for what they believed in, they said their families were too.

As for the speakers and Donald J. Trump himself, I had mixed reactions.  Mike Pompeo was polished, funny, and moving as he recounted his experience serving as our Secretary of State under Donald Trump.  His stories of meeting with our adversarial foes from Afghanistan to Russia to North Korea were enlightening and engaging.  He was clearly hurt and angry at the loss of military and civilian lives inflicted by Joe Biden during the withdrawal from Afghanistan last August:

Mike Pompeo speaks at American Freedom Tour in Austin,Tx pic.twitter.com/QbyMoVTZ3Q

— Racheal Rae (@LaehcaRae) May 14, 2022

By far, the most engaging speaker of the day was Donald Trump Jr.  While the following video was from the American Freedom Tour in Florida a couple of months ago, the speech is the same:

Don’s style is natural, funny as hell, and down to earth for a millionaire.  Listening to him, you believe you could easily grab a beer with the guy and have a phenomenally wonderful time.  He alone was worth the time and energy to attend.

In fact, I was suckered into buying an exorbitantly priced coffee table book of President Trump’s time in Office and waiting in line to get Don Jr. to sign it!

What I won’t do here is regale you with how awesome it was to hear Donald Trump speak.  Look, I love the guy.  I really do.  I love his policy decisions and how they create a better America.  I am officially an ULTRA-MAGA-er.  But he is less than an ideal speaker.  He is rambling and circular in his speeches.  He is funny and enjoyable, but grade A speaker, he is not!

Yes, I want him to run and win in 2024, not because I think Ron DeSantis wouldn’t be a BETTER President, but because I think we could get twelve GOP years if Trump wins first in 2024, followed by DeSantis’s wins in 2028 and 2032.  In fact, the whole American Freedom Tour is really a campaign event, full stop.  He all but admitted a run in the next presidential election cycle. So, for those of you wondering if he’s going to run, I think it’s obvious from this tour that this is his goal.  Barring some health event, Trump clearly plans to run.

All of this is to say, go.  If there is an American Freedom Tour event in your area, attend.  The worst part of the whole thing was the one dude shilling for the event.  I felt like I was at a Baptist revival with pastor looking to save me for a few dollars.  Other than that, I had an amazing time and I think you would too.  Thanks for joining me on my experience of the event!

Featured Image: Personal Photo from American Freedom Tour Austin, May 14, 2022