By the time the midterm elections are over on Tuesday, President Trump will have headlined nearly 700 rallies since he first launched his bid for the White House more than a decade ago.
No other U.S. political figure can come close to matching the staggering number, although nobody seems to have an exact tally. Estimates in October from Republican officials put the number of Trump rallies at more than 650.
The president’s rallies have attracted tens of thousands of people who liken the events to rock show extravaganzas featuring the GOP’s biggest political star who never seems to run out of energy or affection for his adoring MAGA audience.
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“He’s the best showman that ever existed in politics,” Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters said in an interview with The Washington Times.
Mr. Gruters said he’s probably attended more than 70 Trump rallies over the past decade, including a half dozen in the last few weeks.
This election cycle, the president doubled down on his famous rallies, complete with his YMCA dance moves and insults lobbed at Democrats, to hype up the GOP base and get the vote out as his party faces the real possibility of losing the majority in both the House and Senate.
The president hit the campaign trail despite poll numbers that show his approval ratings in the 30s — a real low for him or any president heading into the midterms.
Republican-held Senate seats are in dead-heat races with Democrats in Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio, Alaska and even deep-red South Carolina.
Michigan’s Democrat-held Senate seat is also a toss-up.
Turnout will decide the winners on Tuesday and, low approval ratings be damned, Mr. Trump is barnstorming the battleground states with rallies nearly every day in hopes of giving the GOP a turnout edge.
He scheduled 26 rallies in October, matching the breakneck pace of the month leading up to the 2024 presidential election. Crowds of his most ardent supporters are showing up and loving every minute of it.
In between jokes and jabs at a recent event in Sioux City, Iowa, Mr. Trump laid it on the line with his audience: “If you get out, we’re going to win big.”
It’s hard to precisely measure the impact of political rallies but a report by the analytics firm Haystaq DNA found rallies boosted early voting tenfold ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
The firm mapped every campaign rally held by Mr. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, beginning in late July of 2024. The analysis found that in counties where a Trump or Harris rally was held, early voting jumped 219% within two days of the event compared to a 22.8% increase nationally.
“Even in this new digital campaign era of podcast interviews and Instagram reels, old-school campaign rallies are still crucial,” Haystaq analysts said.
Mr. Gruters told The Times he believes the roughly one-hour-long rallies headlined by Mr. Trump ahead of the midterms are boosting early turnout.
“Everywhere we’ve gone and done rallies, because of that enthusiasm, there’s an uptick almost immediately,” Mr. Gruters said.
Speaking to the press before boarding Air Force One on Sunday, Mr. Trump said the midterm outlook is looking much brighter since he began his rally tour, although there is no evidence of a GOP surge in the latest polls and some analysts say a blue wave is looming.
“I hear that we’ve turned the whole thing around,” Mr. Trump said. “I think the rallies have turned it, frankly, just to be honest.”
Mr. Trump’s rallies have been packed. People line up hours before the doors open, and many of them don Trump and MAGA apparel.
Followers lined up at 4 a.m. in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where Mr. Trump appeared on Thursday to support Republican Sen. Darline Graham, whose close race with her Democratic opponent, Annie Andrews, has the GOP scrambling to shore up her campaign in the once-reliably red state.
Trump supporters drove hours from Florida, Virginia and other states.
“We just had to come here and see the man himself,” a young man in a red “Trump 2028” hat told the Right Side Broadcasting Network outside the venue Thursday morning. He said he drove from Virginia and arrived at “4 a.m. sharp.”
Once the rally gets started, the president gets the crowd laughing and cheering, but mixed into the entertainment are his stark warnings.
If Democrats win control of Congress, he told the crowd at a recent rally in Michigan, they will reverse the tax cuts he signed into law and other policies he put in place to reduce crime and illegal immigration.
“They’ll take away everything,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump’s rally voice has at times grown hoarse due to the grueling schedule. Guest speakers have stepped in to give him periodic breaks.
At a rally Sunday in Port Huron, Michigan, the father of Sept. 11 Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer gave a rousing speech to the audience of thousands in favor of Republican Mike Rogers, who is running for Senate and is tied in the polls with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.
Rapper Nicki Minaj later got the crowd chanting, “We love Trump!”
The rally crowd is always stocked with “regulars,” who follow Mr. Trump’s events across the country. Some have attended hundreds of rallies. Mr. Trump will often give them a shout-out.
He never forgets to mention Blake Marnell, otherwise known as “Brick Suit.”
Mr. Marnell has attended hundreds of rallies sporting a red-brick patterned suit symbolizing his support for the southern border wall long promised by the president. He drove thousands of miles this month to attend Trump rallies.
The president calls him “Mr. Wall,” and says almost every time, “Someday, I tell people, I’m going to wear that suit.”
Mr. Marnell posted videos of crowds gathering Wednesday in Chillicothe, Ohio, where Mr. Trump planned an evening rally on behalf of Republican Senate incumbent John Husted, who is battling to hold onto his seat against Democrat and former Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Hundreds of people in a sea of red Trump apparel were lined up 7 hours before the president was scheduled to arrive.
“This place is going to be rocking!” Mr. Marnell posted.
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