How Trump’s Very First Rally Eerily Foreshadowed His July 4 MAGA Takeover

On Saturday night, Donald Trump will take over the National Mall to turn the nation’s 250th birthday party into a celebration of himself.

Read more Trump Forced to Reveal His Stunning Second Term Cash Grab

“We are going to host the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a ‘TRIBUTE TO AMERICA,’” he announced on Truth Social.

But its tacky, tawdry essence will be the same as the very first Trump rally. It will be all about one man. It is certain to include attacks on the press. It may even be just as fake as that very first one.

That event was a public-relations stunt touted as “a grassroots show of support” by employees at his four Atlantic City, New Jersey, casinos, two days after his 44th birthday on June 16, 1990.

That was also one day after he missed $42.65 million in payments on $1.3 billion in debt. The need for counter-publicity was made clear by newspaper headlines such as “Donald Duck$” and “Uh-Owe.”

The $1 billion-plus Taj Mahal casino that towered 44 stories above the boardwalk where the rally was held had been hyped by Trump at its opening as “the eighth wonder of the world.”

It was now being called “the eighth blunder.”

What was supposedly a spontaneous show of support had been orchestrated by a Trump advertising executive.

Trump management estimated to journalists that 3,000 employees attended the rally. The Associated Press counted around 800—a pattern of numerical inflation that has become very familiar.

More importantly, New York Newsday reported that one of the employees said supervisors had ordered them the day before to attend the rally.

A reporter who was at the scene, but who has since left the news business and asked not to be identified, told the Daily Beast that the rally “was definitely organized” and that he got the impression “from the few people I talked to… it was a company-mandated activity they had to attend.”

As Trump arrived, moving through the crowds and shaking hands, mid-level management called out, “Happy Birthday, Donald!… We Love You, Donald!”

A five-piece band, booked by the ad executive, played Happy Birthday as Trump mounted a stage that had been erected for what his people called a grassroots expression of solidarity. A banner hung overhead:

“We’re behind you 400 percent… P.S. Happy Birthday.”

The show continued, and Trump was presented with an outsized birthday card signed by hundreds of well-wishers. He was also given a 6-by-4 rug with a woven portrait of his favorite person, himself.

“Trump’s portrait on a rug,” the former reporter recalled. “I thought it was kind of tacky… like a portrait of Elvis in a motel room or something.”

Trump seemed delighted by the portrait and by the rest of the rally, dedicated entirely to his favorite person.

“This is unbelievable,” he told the crowd. “Nobody’s going to believe that this had nothing to do with me.”

Read more Catholic Convert JD Vance Lectures the Pope on Key Issue

All the themes of a Trump rally were there to see. There was defiance of authorities, in this case, the banks, and attacks on the press, who had been invited to the event.

Trump was reported to have been given 10 days to work out an arrangement with the banks for a bailout loan or face bankruptcy, but he dismissed reports of his financial difficulties and insisted the Taj Mahal was “setting records.” He launched into an attack against what was even then his favorite target.

“I know there are reporters here, but you don’t see them writing this story,” he said. “Nobody wants to write the positives.”

He then said, “Well, over the years, I’ve surprised a lot of people. And the biggest surprise is yet to come.”

He repeated his remarks at the rally almost verbatim at a birthday party that night in the ballroom of the Trump Castle casino.

“Just remember one thing…” he said, then repeating, “I’ve surprised you before, and the biggest is yet to come.”

Among the B-list celebrities and entertainers in attendance was comedian Fred Travalena, who had been flown in to deliver an impersonation of President George H.W. Bush.

“I keep hearing Donald Trump would make a great president,” Travalena’s President Bush joked.

Exactly a quarter century later and two days after his 69th birthday, Trump descended the escalator at Trump Tower with his latest wife, Melania, to announce what had seemed just a jest in 1990.

He had survived a prolonged financial crisis involving more than $2 billion in debt by giving up actual building and simply licensing his name. The power of the Trump brand had grown exponentially as The Apprentice demonstrated reality TV’s ability to create an illusion. He announced he was running for president, and many rallies followed, some with almost as many supporters in attendance as he claimed.

But even Trump was surprised by the outcome.

“Do you believe this s—?” he told a longtime New York politician who called him the morning after he was elected.

As we came to his 80th birthday on June 14, Trump was in his second term. He has been doing all he can to conflate his birthday with America’s 250th anniversary. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.)

Thirty-six years after the publicity stunt outside the Eighth Blunder of the World, Trump and the equivalents of his ad executive have been weaving another show—Freedom 250—that is often proving as tacky as a portrait on a motel-room rug. He acts as if it were an expression of support for him, as if all of America were out on a continent-sized boardwalk, chanting, “We Love Donald” along with, “USA! USA!”

On the Fourth of July, Trump will hold another rally. This one will be on a much grander scale, but it is sure to be much like his first in all its damning pretense and denial.