That’s right. Trump is coming to the little town of Pickens, SC, population 3400.
And, they came. They booed.
Just breaks your heart, doesn’t it?
The crowd estimate varies widely, 20k? 30k? But reports that there’s only seating for 800 or 900 people in folding chairs. Everybody else stands.
Unless someone gets an overhead shot, I don’t see us getting a good crowd estimate. But I am following a couple of local photographers. Maybe one of them will get something.
Twitter seems to have begun limiting what we can see, unless we pay Elon Musk monthly. I have exceeded my allowed usage and can not see anymore Tweets today, all before Trump took the stage.
Sorry. No more info from Twitter for me today.
Did watch a few minutes of live video. See a lot of people looking restless and fanning themselves with Trump signs.
Pickens had already planned a July 1 Independence Day celebration, starting with a 5K run in the morning and ending with fireworks that night.
As a local official explained, Sen Lindsey Graham, who lives about 20 miles away in Seneca, called and asked if Trump could speak at the Pickens celebration.
That’s right. He’s basically crashing their party. I imagine this will save him a lot of money, since it’s Pickens’ festival, plans already made.
It’s hard to see, but most of the crowd will be down Main St, in the video following the first sidewalk view.
The venue? Several blocks of Main St — two-tenths of a mile by my calculations, roughly 60,000 square feet of asphalt and sidewalks — in South Carolina in July. The heat index is supposed to be 100 degrees for his 1 pm speech. Although if he’s late and speaking at 3 pm, the crowd could enjoy 103.
Miserable. That’s the word for it. We’ve also had several days of air quality warnings.
Don’t worry. They have fans and misters set up, water available but I wonder how much a bottle will cost.
Pickens is in the Northwest corner of SC, just a few miles from Clemson.
Security gates open at 9 am, so it’s going to be a long day for those who want to be up front near the stage.
Pickens is just west of Greenville, SC, and I have to point out that most of the roads leading to Pickens are only two lanes.
What do you want to bet nobody asked him for money up front?
It’s about 20 miles to the nearest interstate, I-85, and 30 to the upstate’s main airport, the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport.
public parking will be limited. But don’t worry, many people area residents are happy to take your money to park in their yards.
There’s a homemade sign that’s shown up on Twitter offering parking for $100 on a lawn. Not sure if that’s real, but that’s also the rumor — at least one person asking $100.
Wait! Found a photo of the sign. www.greenvilleonline.com/...
The county sheriff says they might get 20,000, maybe even 30,000 people at the rally and that the town is ready to handle the crowds. He has 41 patrol officers on his force, but is calling in extra help from nearby counties and the state.
Should be fun to see Lindsey’s reception from the crowd.
The fire chief said early in the week the town was expected to do 100% of the planning with only 20% of the information.
Sounds like Trump.
And if things weren’t bad enough …
Oh, please, no. No that.