At the church of MAGA, the faithful lined up for Trump’s second coming

In Mar-a-Lago, Front Row Joes mingled with Republican royalty to celebrate their chosen one’s election success

Trisha Hope is showing me her home-made hat, which has a figure placed on top of Donald Trump dressed in black leather and armed with three American rockets aimed at two bananas.
“It’s the Trumpinator and he is going to eliminate the Banana Republic we find ourselves in,” Mrs Hope says by way of explanation.
She is a 61-year-old realtor from Houston who has driven 13 hours to attend the official Republican watch party in a Palm Beach convention centre that for one night has been converted into the Church of MAGA.
Like the other 3,000 people in the cavernous space adorned with giant posters saying things like Trump Will Fix It!, she is waiting for their Donald, their saviour, to arrive.
It’s just before midnight on election day and Donald Trump is winning back the White House.
In the Church of MAGA, at the altar of Trump, this is their moment; their time has come (a second time).
Mrs Hope is a member of Front Row Joes, formed in 2015 by a group of Trump fans who kept bumping into each other at rallies.
Having chalked up 42 rallies, she couldn’t resist a dance and a singalong to the Village People’s YMCA – one of Trump’s favourites.
The crowd at the convention centre was in a party mood. Victory was hurtling towards them – and they towards it.
“I am very excited. I think he has done it. It means our country will be saved. It is as simple as that,” she said.
“These last four years have been pure torture. Just go to the grocery store. People cannot afford to eat. It’s ridiculous.”
As she spoke, a huge cheer rang out through the auditorium. Trump was winning back Georgia, inching ever closer to his second term as president.
Throughout the night, cheers would ring out for notable wins and boos for the very occasional Kamala Harris success.
In the crowd, the women wore shiny red dresses and high heels that would be discarded as the night went on; the men wore suits set off with the ubiquitous red MAGA baseball cap.
On huge screens, the TVs alternated between Fox News and CNN, the news channel that Trump in his acceptance speech would describe as “the enemy”.
The numbers were relentless. Ms Harris was doing worse than “Sleepy” Joe Biden by small margins that were big enough to deliver the Democrats a devastating defeat.
The Trump supporters whooped, hollered and high-fived when Fox called Pennsylvania at 1.20am.
“USA, USA,” chanted the crowd. The White House was tantalisingly close.
Dan the Fireman had, in his own words, been “nervous as hell”.
Dan Tilles, Palm Beach’s fire captain and a friend of Donald Trump Jr, was pacing up and down at the start of the evening.
“It’s Trump all the way,” he said at just after 9pm, when the result was far from certain.
“I am hoping and praying for all of us. I have got a lot of damn nerves. I have never been this nervous all my life. I am nervous for the world, for all of us. This is huge.”
By the end of the evening there was, despite the hours waiting for the result, a spring in his step and a smile as wide as his face.
“Most firefighters and police are rooting for Trump,” he said, a hint of the kind of people who won it for him.
It was not only all-American men, mind you.
There was a big contingent of Moms for America, a group of wholesome women such as Rachel Mace, a housewife who in 2021 was crowned Mrs South Carolina.
“We are raising patriots,” she said, “I believe anything learned outside the home you can combat at the dinner table.”
Another of the Moms for America was sure Trump – or Big Daddy Trump, as she called him – would put things right.
Trump won Moms for America’s father of the year award last year, an impressive triumph for a man convicted a few months later of trying to disguise hush money paid to a porn star to keep quiet about their affair.
But then it would seem that contradictions abound in the world of Donald J Trump and nobody bats an eyelid.
It explains in many ways his remarkable success and appeal. The reality is, love him or hate him, people really do love him.
Dr Jenny Vaughan-Curtman, who came to the US as a child refugee from Guatemala, was exuding joy. “I think it’s going to be a home run for Trump,” she said at a little after 10pm, as a huge roar went up at the prospect of Trump “flipping” Virginia (the Democrats would eventually hold the state).
Dr Vaughan-Curtman, who runs a health and wellness company based in Florida, had left her four children with her ex-husband and hopped on a flight from Texas to make it to the convention centre for the watch party.
“I think America is ready for renewal and hope and Donald Trump will give us that,” she said.
One day she hopes to become Florida’s governor in a part of the country that 20 years ago was a swing state and which Trump, with his burgeoning support among Latino voters, has turned solidly red.
There was talk and murmur of Trump appearing at any minute. But it became clear that the 78-year-old former president – and soon to become the next president – was waiting for the results to come in.
A thank-you speech to his devoted supporters was going to turn into a victory rally.
Trump was ensconced in Mar-a-Lago, his home and social club, that sits on Palm Beach island, a 10-minute drive from the Palm Beach county convention centre.
With him were 700 VIP guests dining on steak and lobster and served champagne, fine wines and spirits.
Trump was surrounded by his family, his closest friends including Nigel Farage, the British MP, as well as the likes of Tucker Carlson and the mega donors, including Elon Musk, the world’s richest man.
Musk sat to Trump’s left with Dana White, the chief executive of the UFC, the mixed martial arts sport, to his right.
The event was staged in the extraordinary ballroom built at Mar-a-Lago.
“It was an amazing evening,” said Maurice Moradof, the owner of Yafa, a jewellery business with a branch on Palm Beach’s most expensive road, Worth Avenue, and another on Fifth Avenue in New York.
“Everything was on the menu,” Mr Moradof told me, having been bussed into the convention centre prior to Trump’s appearance.
Mr Moradof, wearing a diamond-studded US flag by the jewellery maker Van Cleef & Arpels on his lapel, is a member of the Mar-a-Lago club and a close friend of Trump.
“He was confident from the get-go,” said Mr Moradof, “His energy was incredible the entire evening.”
The crowd in the convention centre, having munched its way through a ton of spring rolls, cold cuts and cheese, was fired up for the finale.
Thumping music blared from the speakers as Fox News called Pennsylvania for Trump. It was 1.20am and the party was starting to get going.
Less than 30 minutes later, Fox was giving Trump the White House, the crowd responding with whoops and high-fives and more beer.
Trump was now on his way and the thousands now in the auditorium rushed towards the stage decorated with dozens of American flags where the next president was due any minute – or so they thought.
Trump likes, of course, to keep people waiting. On he came at 2.24am to God Bless the USA, the anthem of his campaign with the Trumpistas deliriously singing along.
“And I’m proud to be an American,” they sang in unison as Trump walked onto the stage accompanied by Melania, his family and the various supporters who have delivered him a second term. JD Vance, his vice-presidential pick, received a huge cheer.
He will with near certainty be the Republican’s presidential nominee in four years’ time. Only Musk was missing.
The speech was typical of Trump. Full of promise – “this will truly be a golden age for America” – Trump addressed his adoring crowd for the next half hour or so.
Melania earned herself a peck on the cheek. Absent for much of the campaign, she beamed; her smile as broad as anyone’s in the audience.
And by now with the White House in the bag – although still only Fox had called it – the party was over.
We had watched and he had won. Trump and his family walked jauntily off the stage and the supporters out the main entrance to the convention centre. In the lobby, a group had formed to sing the spiritual hymn How Great Thou Art in perfect harmony.
Trump is high priest of the Church of MAGA and he had delivered the Republican party to the promised land that is the White House.