YOUNG students attending their debut political gathering, longtime supporters coming since 2015, or curious onlookers witnessing a presidential spectacle, they all agree: as Donald Trump runs his final campaign, no one will be able to replace his rallies.
"There's a lot of Americana. There's a lot of, you know, happy people," a Trump fan named Bart told AFP of Tuesday night's outdoor campaign event in Greenville, North Carolina.
Trump has been barnstorming across multiple US states ahead of the Nov 3 midterm elections, with his party at serious risk of losing their majorities in Congress.
In this rural corner of the eastern United States, "we don't have stuff like this happen very often," said Bart, attending with his wife Courtney and their two children, ages 10 and 12.
Bart, who declined to give his last name, walked past a "MAGA" souvenir stand and rows of red, white and blue bunting before finding his seat on an airport tarmac where the rally was held.
It was a familiar feeling. He attended his first Trump campaign event in 2015.
Since then, millions of Americans have experienced this in-person ritual – a unique blend of provocative verbal attacks, consummate showmanship, and tireless enthusiasm, all from a president who has reached age 80.
For 18-year-old Jaycie Bullard, dressed in Republican red, attending the rally was a no-brainer.
"When I heard that he was coming to Greenville, I knew I had to come," said the nursing student enrolled at a nearby university.
"It's pure joy, I feel like a little kid on Christmas."
After an hours-long wait, a plane flew low overhead: Trump had arrived. He strode onstage to the strains of "God Bless the USA," which has become a core part of his political events.
The president launched fierce attacks – sometimes tinged with racist overtones – against his opponents, claimed against all evidence that he won the 2020 election, and cracked oft-repeated jokes before he yielded the stage to a local Republican US Senate candidate.
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His rambling, repetitive Greenville speech clocked in at 111 minutes. As always, he left the stage to the Village People's "Y.M.C.A."
But these moments, celebrated by the "Make America Great Again" faithful, are the vestiges of a fading political traveling roadshow that only Trump has been able to pull off.
The crowds and venues are getting smaller. Trump, constitutionally barred from a third term, must step down in January 2029.
"I'm nervous for the future," admitted retiree Patty Laronde, who was seeing Trump for the first time.
"Who's going to take his place?" she told AFP. "I'm hopeful with JD Vance," the vice president widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
Even if another such master of ceremonies emerges in American politics, David, a self-employed 51-year-old, vocalised what many attendees were likely thinking: "the copy is never as good as the original."
"He is an anomaly," added Troy, 59, a manager who also did not give his last name. "There's... never been a president like him," he added, "and I don't know there ever will be again."
Researchers contacted by AFP tended to agree.
By "turning political rallies into entertainment," Trump "takes alleged negative emotions such as resentment, grievance and disappointment and transforms them into excitement, pride and positive anticipation," explained Yagmur Karakaya, a sociology professor at Yale University.
He relies on improvised comedy and culture-war jabs, sports metaphors, the ever-present "winning" philosophy, and business jargon, weaving it into a unique style.
"Can others do this? I am not so sure," Karakaya said.
That is the million-dollar question, said speech communication professor Jacob Justice of the University of Mississippi, who likened a Trump rally's atmosphere to that of "a Grateful Dead concert (or) a college football tailgate."
If anyone could inspire something similar, he or she "might come from the world of social media influencing or podcasting," Justice said.
Should that person be JD Vance, rallygoer Bart said, "he would bring half of these people."
* The writer is from AFP
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