The Atlantic

Trump’s New Mexico Rally Teased His 2020 Strategy

Speaking to thousands on the outskirts of Albuquerque last night, the president made a pitch to win over a voter bloc that once seemed a pipe dream.
Source: Cengiz Yar / Getty

RIO RANCHO, N.M.—Long before Air Force One even touched down here, the line of Donald Trump supporters snaked around the suburban Santa Ana Star Center, with thousands of red-capped fans happy and impatient to see the president live and in person.

Traffic in the vicinity of the venue had been snarled for miles and hours. And while many of the president’s signature promises—namely a proposed border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border—are at best works in progress, the rally-goers I spoke with last night weren’t just supportive, but, whatever their walk of life, seemed to see Trump in themselves.

“He’s just like me,” said Richard Tuttle, an attendee in a Make America Great Again hat who moved to New Mexico from Southern California several years ago. “He’s a working man.”

“He’s in our town and so we’ve got to support

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