Over 30,000 Mississippians get stories like this delivered to their inboxes for free.
Sign up for The Today, our daily newsletter, and continue to read this story.
PHILADELPHIA — Several thousand people gathered at the Neshoba County Fair Tuesday afternoon to hear Donald Trump Jr. talk about his father’s candidacy for president.
“This isn’t a campaign anymore, this is a movement,” Trump said. “You have proven that today here in Mississippi. Wow.”
Trump spoke for about five minutes, referring to his father’s position on several issues and expressing his appreciation for Mississippi’s support. (Donald J. Trump won the Mississippi Republican presidential primary earlier this year.) He even remarked on appearing on the same stage from which Ronald Reagan kicked off his 1980 presidential campaign at the Neshoba County Fair.
Massive Trump signs and handmade banners hung from many balconies of the fair’s famous cabins, and droves of fairgoers wore “Trump/Pence” apparel. Some even donned Trump masks and capes. One cabin behind the stage where Trump spoke bore a handmade sign that read “Trump Tower.”
Fred Poole, 68, from Meridian, wore a Trump T-shirt.
“I drove here for the day to see Trump,” he said. “I’ve seen many political candidates at the fair over the years, including Reagan. But I can’t think of one I’ve been more excited about.”
Trump arrived at the fairgrounds around 3 p.m. and stopped at numerous cabins with Gov. Phil Bryant and U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper before making his way to the horse track Grandstand for a speech around 4 p.m.
There, a couple of thousand Trump supporters gathered, initiating “Trump! Trump! Trump!” and “USA” chants while patriotic songs blared from the loudspeakers.
“Many people have said my father is an unlikely voice for the people,” Trump said. “He’s actually speaking for you. He’s giving a voice to the people who have made this country great.”
The fairgrounds weren’t totally a Trump festival. One cabin displayed a pro Hillary Clinton sign — though it was located a few doors from a “Hillary for Prison” sign.
Fairgoer Kelli Nichols said people on opposite political sides are polite with each other.
“It’s like any other value in the South. We take our sports seriously. We take our religion seriously and we take our politics seriously,” Nichols said.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
Win or lose, just how much love and respect will these slick New York real estate developers show Mississippi after the campaign?
The Trumps are all lowlifes. They are a throwback to the days of Bilbo , et al, in better suits
What do you expect from a bunch of trumpette bigots? Like father like sons. The father controls the money and none of these racist offspring will every defy their egotistical, narcissistic, aging, lying, draft dodging bigoted father. These rich white trash really believe their dumbass father will win the presidency. I have a message for them – THE AMERICAN PUBLIC IS MUCH TOO SMART TO VOTE FOR THAT BIGOT TRUMP. And note that they started this “foray” in Mississippi, THE DUMBEST AND POOREST STATE IN THE UNION. That figures.
They chose that specific location like Reagan did in 1980. Reagan went there after he won the nomination, although it wasn’t a swing state. He went to pick up the George Wallace vote base. There is video of Reagan shaking hands at the all white rally. Mississippi isn’t a swing state today either but the trumps are there to get the same base behind him.
A Reagan-style embrace of bigots won’t work this time. There just aren’t enough of them anymore. Thank God.