"But once the guest of honor walked in, it transformed into something like a small convention for aspirants of the MAGA lifestyle. There were men in leather jackets, women in bedazzled red hats, young guys in ill-fitting suits. When the giant visitor, an extremely tall man with long straight brown hair and the flashiest cowboy boots I'd ever seen, lifted his phone to take a selfie, the entire room let out a roar, everyone angling to get into the background of his shot."
"A woman proudly presented me with a flyer the man just signed. It read: "New Jersey is a swing state -Scott Presler." He disappeared to the bathroom to fix his hair: "One minute!" And when he reemerged, every strand in place, he delivered the sermon he'd given 100 times. As always, he did it with fresh conviction. "I stick out like a sore thumb because I got my beautiful cowboy boots here in the Garden State," he said,"
A long-aspiring Trumpworld figure entered a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Union, New Jersey, projecting deliberate showmanship and awareness of being watched. The ordinary hall shifted into a MAGA-oriented gathering when he arrived, with supporters eager to appear in his selfies. A woman displayed a signed flyer reading "New Jersey is a swing state -Scott Presler." He retreated to the bathroom to fix his hair, reemerged, and delivered a rehearsed sermon with fresh conviction. He boasted of his cowboy boots, warned that voting patterns must change to avoid repeated losses, cited a January net loss of 13,000 Democratic voters, and urged outreach at retailers like Bass Pro Shop and Home Depot.
Read at Slate Magazine
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