At a rally in Ohio, the cries of ‘lock her up!’ are loud and every negative opinion poll or media report only entrenches the support of Trump fans

Whatever doubts gnaw at Donald Trump at dead of night, his hardcore supporters will not allow him to give up the dream of the White House.

All 18 people interviewed by the Guardian at a Trump campaign rally in the battleground state of Ohio on Thursday night challenged the basic premise that he is losing. If anything, they seemed even more convinced than he is that opinion polls and mainstream media cannot be trusted so he should not throw in the towel.

Trump, channelling the mix of vexation and continued hope, said: “I’ve been saying if we win ‘cos I want to be nice, right, but the people are getting angry at me so we’ll just say when we win on November 8.”

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But the omens are not good. As Hillary Clinton dominates opinion polls and gets positive signs from early voting, Trump has stopped formal, major donor fundraising events for the Republican party. He has reportedly cut back on transition plans and taken time off the campaign trail to open his new hotel in Washington. Recently Trump dolefully asked supporters whether they were glad he ran, adding: “I’ll let you know on the evening of November 8 whether I’m glad.”

The candidate’s rally at a sports complex in Geneva – his third in Ohio on Thursday – drew an estimated 7,000 people but was far from full, in contrast to his swashbuckling early campaign. It was overwhelmingly white, including many retirees. But those who did attend waved “Trump/ Pence” and “Make America great again” signs and chanted “Lock her up!” and “Build the wall!” with the usual gusto.

They nodded approvingly when Trump described his opponent as “unstable” and jeered when Trump reeled off a list of State Department expenditures during Clinton’s tenure as secretary, including $79,000 on Barack Obama’s books, $630,000 to try to make State Department Facebook pages more popular and $88,000 to send three comedians to India.

They whooped with delight when the showman made reference to Vice-President Joe Biden’s recent comment that he would like to take him behind the gym. “You know what you do with Biden? You go like this.” Trump turned to one side and blew a puff of air from his mouth. “And he’d fall over.” He added: “I dream about Biden. Boy, would that be easy. That would be an easy function.”

Towards the end of the event, two Vietnam war veterans moved through the crowd with a giant Trump/ Pence sign. “Now that’s a beautiful, big sign,” Trump said. “Now those are fans.” Later one of them, Tom Line, 68, a retired construction worker, said: “I think Donald Trump will keep fighting. I don’t think he’s a man who gives up. None of us really believes in the polls because of the way the situation is with the media. We don’t know who to believe any more.”

This view was shared by Wesley Gaul, a 57-year-old consultant. “I don’t think there’s any sign of him giving up,” he said. “Look at all the people here. I live around here and there are Trump signs in every yard and only two Clinton signs in 30 miles. I don’t believe the polls. I think the people’s vote will shock everyone.”

Then there was Devon Coffin, 24, a maintenance mechanic wearing a profane t-shirt that referenced Monica Lewinsky. He said: “He’s doing three rallies a day, seven days a week. That’s not giving up. That’s a man on a mission. We’ve got a broken system and this is our way of taking it back.

“Hillary Clinton is a corrupt globalist. She’s going to be eight more years of Obama, taunt Russia and take money from people who pay taxes and give to people who don’t want to work. I know people who don’t work and have more food in their fridge than me.”

And if she wins? “I’m not going to burn down the White House because this is still my country,” Coffim replied. “It doesn’t mean we’re done trying.”

Others echoed Trump’s own view that the media and the polls are rigged against him and that size of the crowds he draws to rallies – which he holds more frequently than Clinton – demonstrates his grassroots support. In May Trump told the New York Times: “Word of mouth is the No 1 thing. And the word of mouth at my rallies is like, ‘You’ve got to go see it’. And you know, one person goes and they talk about it to 20 people.”

Michael Seckely, 39, a US Marine, said: “He ain’t going to quit. If you follow the numbers of people who come out to these events, you have to believe there’s opportunity. It’s like you go to a football game and the crowd is so big, you play hard. If there are no fans, you might want to go home real quick. This guy is doing two or three shots a day. If you compare it to her, it’s overwhelmingly in his favour.”

If there are problems ... that’s when you talk about pitchforks. Michael Seckely, a US Marine, on accepting the election result

Will Seckely accept the election result? “If you wake up on the ninth and Hillary Clinton’s the president and there’s no proof of problems, then you have to accept it. If there are problems, I’m going to argue it. That’s when you talk about pitchforks. Violence? You’re talking to a marine who is in combat. It wouldn’t bother me either way.”

Like Trump, many of his loyalists are clinging to the hope that his campaign can emulate the shock British vote to leave the European Union in June. Nigel Farage, then leader of the UK Independence party, called it a victory for the “little people” over the establishment and has appeared alongside Trump at rallies.

Marte Sellura, 65, an artist, said: “I feel we’re in a similar situation to Brexit. I listen to Nigel Farage’s speeches all the time. I feel that we in America are in tune with the British on immigration issues. America has woken up: there is a globalist agenda. Those things we though are conspiracy theories are not conspiracy theories any more; they’re happening.”

Sellura, wearing a t-shirt depicted a rifle with the slogan: “The people will never surrender”, also launched a critique familiar to consumers of conservative media such as Breitbart News and Fox News. “The polls are lying. We all know they’re rigged. The real polls show him 10 or 15 points higher. The only way she can win is to have it rigged horribly. They all know they’re going to steal it. There is massive evidence of voter fraud: dead people are voting, illegal immigrants are voting. It’s been a Democratic tradition.”

Sellura also claimed that the involvement of TV presenter Billy Bush, cousin of George W Bush, in the lewd 11-year-old video that rocked Trump’s campaign was evidence of a conspiracy by the “Bush-Clinton family”. “We feel we’re up against a crime family that makes the Russian mob and the Sicilian mobs look like schoolboys.”

Trump took his usual swipes at the “dishonest” media during Thursday’s rally, eliciting boos and whistles. Chris Burton, 65, a building restorer, said: “The media are full of BS it’s unbelievable that people don’t go down and burn the newspapers out of existence. It’s just lies.”

Most of those interviewed said they would have to accept the outcome and move on without a violent backlash, but not everyone. “I don’t want to live under President Clinton,” said one man, who did not wish to be named. “I think there’ll be a revolution. People will rise up and take over the government. A civil war has happened before so it’s not unthinkable today.”

Queuing outside the arena was retired secretary Irena Rus, 75, from Melania Trump’s home country, Slovenia. When she explained she had immigrated legally and learned English, Trump supporters congratulated her and shook her hand. Asked if Trump was losing, she pointed to the long queue and said: “Can you see this? No, I don’t think so, because the news media make him lose. He’s doing a good job campaigning. He’s the only one who speaks the truth.”