Former President Donald Trump's appearance at a major college football game in Alabama Saturday night didn't inspire as much excitement as it would have in the past, according to a new analysis.
Trump's reception at the Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa — where he was joined by rap-rocker Kid Rock and country singer Hank Williams Jr. were with him — surprised NOTUS reporter Ben T.N. Mause, he wrote Tuesday.
"There are three things people here care about most: God, SEC football and Donald Trump," Mause wrote. "And not necessarily in that order."
So Mause was stunned when he found something missing in the environment Saturday night.
"Maybe it's just that the football seemed to mean more than usual," he wrote. "But over the course of dozens of interviews Saturday, there was a common feeling."
READ MORE:Former Trump homeland security advisor slams ex-president for 'politicizing' hurricane disaster
"Ask these people about their excitement over Trump coming to the game," Mause wrote, "and you're often greeted with a physical reaction: a shrug."
The reporter argued that "on a scale of the Trumpiest places on Earth, an Alabama football game is about a nine" and "just below a Trump rally." But at Bryant-Denny Stadium, he wrote, the "lack of fervor" for Trump was "notable."
"Unfortunately for Trump, according to the fans on the ground, few seemed to be paying enough attention to even associate his visit with electoral matters," Mause wrote. "Even the fans who loudly proclaimed their early morning drunken adoration for him said it wouldn't get them any closer to filling out a ballot if they weren't already planning to."
Democratic strategist Tharon Johnson observed to Mause that Alabama was far from a swing state, although Georgia most definitely is.
READ MORE: 'Totally out of luck': How Project 2025 would gut relief for Hurricane Helene victims
"He's doing something that's sort of unorthodox by going to a non-battleground state to try to appeal to battleground voters," Johnson told Mause.
Read Ben T.N. Mause's full NOTUS article at this link.
