Chris Stigall witnessed a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man-sized Trump-Biden enthusiasm gap lumbering the streets of Philadelphia Saturday. And lived to tell of it.
As the Lion Week in Review podcast and Philly radio talk host described Monday on Kansas City’s Pete Mundo Show on KCMO, while a paltry party of protesters outside the Donald Trump rally tried to find something – anything – to be upset about, the former president was killing it as the king of retail politics.
In the middle of it all, Stigall scored a rare one-on-one interview with Trump before his rally Saturday that attracted thousands in the deep-blue Democrat stronghold.
Mundo asked Stigall how Trump, beleaguered by a barrage of left-wing lawfare in advance of Thursday’s presidential debate, was carrying himself. Stigall described how the former president takes over a room, and recounted the now-viral moment when a young supporter with a Trump wig was overwhelmed at meeting him and basked in Trump’s warmth.
“When he comes in the room, Pete, he’s like a tiger,” Stigall said. “You know, he kind of, what do you say, ambles in. Like, it’s not bravado, it’s not like, ‘I’m here and yelling and obnoxious.’ It’s just like, everybody knows he’s in the room. He’s one of those guys. He just carries himself that way.
“But he’s very calm and he’s very reserved. And he’s actually, Pete, very soft spoken, believe it or not.”
Recalling how Trump embraced the emotional young man and handed him a signed a $20 bill, Stigall opines, “The kid’s life is made now, you know.
“And it’s like, he didn’t have to do that. He didn’t have to. And then he turns around and he writes a $500 tip to the employees of the sandwich shop and writes ‘no tax on tips, vote Trump,’ and bought like 200 sandwiches for his team.
“The way he works a room, the way he greets people, the energy he draws from people – he likes people. And for some reason that doesn’t often come across on your TV screen or even in interviews. But he’s so personable and so damned likable. I just defy you to be in the room with the guy and come away not liking him if you get to meet him one-on-one.”
On a distant bluff across the yawning enthusiasm gap, Stigall videoed what he said were fewer than 20 listless protesters outside the Trump rally – whose best play, he said, was to resuscitate a legless 2016 slight about Trump’s hands.
Stigall credits growing concerns among all Americans over “immigration, crime, the border, the instability around the world.” And he notes Trump’s 2016 appeal to blue-state voters: “What do you have to lose?”
“I mean, a cop was shot the very night Trump was visiting, just a few blocks from where he was speaking,” Stigall notes of last week’s violence in Philly. “Seven people were shot just blocks from where he was speaking the day before.
“The violence is everywhere. It’s thick and pervasive in places like Philadelphia. And so, I think that that’s kind of the attitude many folks have, with inflation and crime. It’s like, ‘What the hell we got to lose?’
“The news in that rally Saturday, to me, was not those in attendance. The news was what was going on outside,” Stigall added, noting he posted video proof on his social media accounts. “The story is there was zero protesting – like, there was ambivalence at best.
“And so I’m not suggesting that these deep-blue cities like Philadelphia are gonna go for Trump, but I am suggesting they’re not excited or moved by Biden and they’re not particularly interested in going to heckle Trump.
“So, does that tell us something? I think it does.”
