The presumptive Republican nominee struck an apocalyptic tone in latest rally, saying the US wouldn’t survive if he isn’t elected and talked about nukes in Japan

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Amid shrinking poll numbers and smaller crowds, Donald Trump’s rhetoric took a dark turn on Wednesday in Atlanta.

The presumptive Republican nominee struck an apocalyptic tone, projecting that the United States would not survive if he were not elected. He raised the notion of welcoming the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, to the United States for negotiations. And he repeated his contention that Japan might have to “go nuclear” if it did not offer the United States better pay for its military protection.

Recent polls show Hillary Clinton leading Trump by double digits nationally. And his unfavorability ratings continue to rise.

That slowdown in support seemed evident on Wednesday when Trump spoke at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, which holds less than half the audience he commanded during his last appearance in Atlanta in February. “This place is packed,” he said, shielding his eyes against stage lights. “We have people outside who couldn’t get in. Does anybody want to give up their seat?”

Apparently Trump could not see the hundreds of empty seats in the theater’s second level. A similarly reduced crowd showed up at a recent campaign stop in Virginia.

The audience matched the tone of Trump’s speech. Before Trump came on stage an announcer asked – as is customary at Trump rallies – that supporters identify any protesters to security and shout “Trump! Trump! Trump!” until the dissenters were removed.

There were protesters, and their presence was particularly obvious in the smaller, dimly lit venue. When security escorted them out through the emergency exits, the opened doors shot rays of sunlight across the theater.



The suspicion of protesters reached a point at which Trump supporters were informing on each other for not being “real” supporters. One woman pointed security toward a couple sitting quietly in their seats. “Them,” she mouthed.

The couple seemed baffled and denied to a security agent that they were anything but genuine Trump admirers. He waved them toward the exit and said, “Let’s go.”

Afterward the informer, who declined to give her name, grinned as onlookers congratulated her. “I heard one of them say ‘Never Trump’,” she said. “And one held up three fingers, like this.”

She held up her hand in a Boy Scout salute.

What did the three fingers signify?

“I have no idea,” she said.

One of the biggest reactions from the crowd came at the mention of Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential nominee who has warned that Trump could inspire “trickle-down racism”.

Mitt Romney warns Donald Trump will cause 'trickle-down racism' in the US Read more

A poll on Tuesday showed Trump closing the gap with Clinton, although other surveys have been more unfavorable for him. “Take a look over the past couple of days since we had this event,” he said, referring to the massacre in Orlando. “Take a look at the polls.”

He spoke for 20 minutes on the murders, and the shooter’s links to radical Islam. “It’s going to happen again,” he said. “We are taking in thousands of people into our country, and we don’t know what the hell is going on.”

The crowd cheered in response, “USA! USA!”

Other cracks in Trump’s foundation may be forming around his relationship with the National Rifle Association. At one point in his speech he pointed out that he had received the “earliest ever endorsement” from the NRA, which he said is run by “wonderful people”.

Earlier in the day, though, he had written on Twitter that “will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns”.

The NRA’s response was oblique: “Our position is no guns for terrorists – period. Due process and right to self-defense for law-abiding Americans.”

After Wednesday’s rally, pouring rain drowned out most conflict between supporters and protesters. Ryan Jones, a 23-year-old supporter from Athens, Georgia, dashed into the rain and said his favorite moments from the speech were “any time he bashed Hillary Clinton”.

Across the street, protester Taylor Morris of Atlanta laughed as he recalled being tossed out of the theater for chanting, “Muslims are welcome here.”

“People were pointing out others to security,” he said. “It was just an ongoing, rolling disruption.”