Trump

  As I wrote previously, I am a political junkie.  If there is a national candidate for something in town or around, I will try to see the person.  And, as I stated previously, please don't comment one way or another regarding a candidate or what I say in the story.  It just is how I perceived them at the time.

 Donald Trump had recently announced that he was running for President.  It was around June 2015.  Senator Tim Scott was holding a candidate forum at the Koger Center for the Performing Arts in Columbia.  Trump was the invited speaker.  

 I first learned about Donald Trump back in the late 1980's.  He had written a book called "The Art of the Deal" which was a best seller.  I was dating a girl at the time who loved that book and was enamored by Trump.  I really couldn't compete with him.  Later, when "The Apprentice" became popular, we sold Trump board games and Trump talking dolls.  They really didn't sell very well, and we had to put them on clearance.  I bought up a bunch of them and sold them to collectors online.

 When I arrived at the Koger Center, I found out that you needed to get tickets to the event.  The tickets didn't cost anything, but they had limited seating.  They put me with a group without tickets that would get standby seats.  Those with tickets got to stand in the shade.  My group had to stand in the sun.  I learned a valuable lesson, which was get a ticket.  They opened the doors, and my group had to wait patiently.  They finally sat the ticket holders, and then let us come inside to sit in the balcony.  We had to go through metal detectors.  That was the first time I had to do that to see a candidate.

 When Trump came onstage, he got a very long-standing ovation.  He spoke for about an hour.  My impression at the time was that he spoke without saying anything.  There was no substance in his speech.  It was mostly about poll numbers.  Senator Scott interviewed him after his speech.  When the senator would ask Trump a question about policy, Trump wouldn't answer the question.  For example, Trump was asked about what he would do about Isis.  Trump's response was that he had a plan for it, but he wasn't going to tell people what it was, because he didn't want Isis to hear about it.  When asked about the economy, Trump said he had a plan for that, but he didn't want his fellow candidates to hear about it.  It went on from there.  Education?  Health Care?  Poverty?  He had a plan for it, but he wasn't going to say what it was.

 He did get several standing ovations from the crowd, including me.  I didn't want to stay seated for fear of some of those folks in the crowd.  My thighs started to hurt from all of the standing and sitting.  When the program was over, the crowd filed out of the auditorium.  I headed over to where his motorcade would be and saw the cars pulling out.  I ran up the hill to Assembly Street and was the only one on the sidewalk.  Trump's SUV was passing by.  He was in the front passenger seat with the window down.  I was six feet away.  I waved at him, and he waved back at me.  He then put up the window, and they headed for the airport.  I was the last person he waved at in Columbia, I guess.  Little did I know that I waved at a future President, and he waved back at me.