At Trump’s election party in Florida there is first mistrust and then elation

WEST PALM BEACH — If his posts were any indication, Donald Trump was nervous two hours before the polls closed Tuesday.

“There is a lot of talk about massive FRAUD in Philadelphia,” the former president posted on his social media platform Truth Social. “Law enforcement is coming!!!” (Local officials from both parties said there was no basis for Trump’s claim.)

But at the massive Palm Beach Convention Center there are fewer than four Miles from Mar-a-Lago, his supporters were festive. They lined up at security checkpoints hours in advance, donning his signature red hats and other “Make America Great Again” swag. When the Secret Service let a group through metal detectors, they erupted in cries of “USA!” USA!”

Would Election Day 2024 be a new beginning? A crowning ending? The end of the beginning? The beginning of the end?

His supporters were consistently confident that Trump would retake the presidency. Amberlee Downen, a Republican college student at Liberty University who flew in from Virginia to attend the watch party, predicted the race would take place at 10 p.m

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City who lost his law license He lied about Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 election, saying an hour before the first polls closed in Florida that Trump’s lead was too big for Democrats to overcome with dirty tricks.

“I don’t think they can repeat a theft of 800,000 in Philadelphia,” Giuliani told reporters as he walked through the venue. “But let’s see. I was wrong.”

In the event room, a sign in huge font read: “DREAM BIG AGAIN.”

When polls closed in South Florida at 7 p.m., crowds were still streaming in.

They received good news almost immediately.

Trump scored historic victories across the country, including in unexpected places. Miami-Dade County chose him by double digits. The suburb of Loudoun County, Virginia, where Joe Biden wiped out Trump in 2020 and saw huge gains for Republicans. The crowd’s first roar of the night came when the broadcasters announced Florida’s 30 electoral votes for the former president.

Georgia and North Carolina, supposedly at odds, appeared to concede to Trump not long after.

There was little to do other than have a drink, watch the election coverage and chat. But the noise grew audibly more excited with each positive development for Republicans: Rick Scott’s win in the U.S. Senate, Trump’s victory in Texas and, crucially, early positive results from the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Shortly before 11 p.m. the room became a real party. A network report about how Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign party in Washington, D.C. had descended into sullen silence was interrupted by the Village People’s “YMCA,” a staple at Trump rallies. Red hats moved near the stage cheering and those in attendance shouted the chorus.

The only tension of the night seemed to be when Trump would arrive.

• • •