Trump, Pence celebrate election victory in Orlando
ORLANDO — President-elect Donald Trump said Florida is his second home, but “in many ways it’s my first home.” And Friday night, he repeatedly thanked a large audience of Sunshine State supporters for helping propel him to the White House.
“The patriots in this audience tonight stood up to the global special interests and delivered a historic win for the American worker,” Trump said, drawing applause.
Thousands of Trump supporters converged on the Central Florida Fairgrounds for the USA Thank You Tour 2016 outdoor rally, cheering, waving signs and chanting “CNN sucks!” “Thank you Trump!” “Lock her up!” and “USA!”
The crowd surrounding the Orlando Amphitheater stage — which was decorated with Christmas trees — was considerably larger than the one that gathered there for a Trump campaign rally six days before Election Day. That speech was part of his late two-day, four city tour of Florida.
Trump captured 49 percent of the vote in Florida, defeating Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton's 48 percent share and securing the battleground state's 29 electoral votes. Trump captured 4,617,886 votes, compared with 4,504,975 votes for Clinton, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
During Friday’s rally, Trump promised to defend the Stars and Stripes from flag-burning protesters; called to build safe zones in Syria and get the Gulf States to pay for them; and summed up his economic policy as “jobs, jobs, jobs.”
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“To be a strong nation, we must also be a rich nation. A wealthy nation. Whether it’s exploring space or curing disease, we want the next generation of innovation and production to happen right here in America – and right here in our great state of Florida,” he said.
Trump said he won the election in spite of media dishonesty. He drew laughs by recalling that some pollsters had placed him in danger of losing Texas, Georgia and Utah, and news anchors were “sweating and crying and throwing up all over the place” while state-by-state election results rolled in.
“In fact, the other side’s trying to figure out, ‘Well, in four years, how do we get some of these deplorables to our side?” Trump said.
Vice president-elect Mike Pence introduced Trump, saying that the president-elect will repeal Obamacare “lock, stock and barrel.”
Trump and Pence led a similar “thank you” rally Thursday at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Trump will appear Saturday afternoon at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama.
As during Trump’s Florida campaign rallies, a makeshift flea market of merchandise vendors across the fairgrounds sold Trump flags, ball caps, towels, buttons, bumper stickers, T-shirts, banners, posters, yard signs, Halloween masks and baby clothes. Vendors hawked Trump items carnival-barker style while rally attendees walked past.
About a dozen demonstrators with the newly created anti-Trump group Eleven-Nine Coalition displayed protest signs at the fairgrounds entrance. Most were University of Central Florida students.
Grayson Lanza, a UCF senior political science major, held a cardboard sign towards traffic bearing the message “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA.”
“Trump chose this as the only county in the state of Florida to come on his victory tour. It’s also the only county where he overwhelmingly lost. We wanted to come out and represent the feelings of many people in Central Florida and Orlando,” Lanza said.
Clinton won 60 percent of the vote in Orange County (329,894 votes), where Trump took 36 percent (195,216 votes).
“We’re here for the working people. It doesn’t matter who you are, your ethnicity, your race. We’re trying to represent the common people and fight for what’s right for us. That could be someone who works at Universal, a student at UCF, to a suburban housewife,” Lanza said.
John and Lisa Kettler of Hubbard, Ohio, visited Universal Studios on Friday before attending Trump’s rally during their Orlando trip. The Youngstown-area couple carried Trump/Pence signs at the fairgrounds.
“I’m in oil and gas. I make (drilling) pipe for a living. And it’s important that a Republican’s in office for that -- energy,” John Kettler said.
Lisa Kettler also supported Trump because he isn’t a typical politician.
“I think he’s the only one who hasn’t been influenced by the whole political thing. Everybody else, they’ve been in politics their whole life,” Lisa Kettler said.
“He’s kind of coming in fresh. So I think he has a good outlook on what we actually need,” she said.
Contact Neale at 321-242-3638, rneale@floridatoday.com or follow @RickNeale1 on Twitter
