Last Wednesday, presidential candidate Donald Trump visited my school, St. Norbert College, in De Pere, Wisconsin as one of his campaign stops ahead of Wisconsin's primary tomorrow. I was surprised a polarizing figure like Trump would want to come to St. Norbert since it’s such a small school (St. Norbert has about 2,100 undergrads). Before I proceed any further, I’d like to make it clear that this article is not about my political views or who I am supporting as the next President of the United States.
As soon as I found out the “The Donald” would be delivering a speech on campus, I went to his website to get a ticket to attend the event. I write for the "St. Norbert Times," the student-run newspaper on campus, so I thought I might be considered media and figured I’d apply for a media credential on Trump’s website just for the heck of it. That turned out to be a great decision.
I’ve heard that the venue where Trump gave his speech, the Walter Theatre, has a capacity of anywhere from 500 to 700 people, depending on who I asked. During the days leading up to his speech, I realized that a lot more than 700 students had tickets to attend the event. Trump’s campaign had given out over 1,500 tickets for an event with a capacity of 500 to 700.
Trump was scheduled to speak at 10 a.m. and the doors of the Walter Theatre were scheduled to open at 8 a.m.. I left my dorm room at 7:15 a.m. expecting a fairly large line, but I didn’t care about being close to the stage. I just wanted to get in. "Oh my God," I said to myself when I saw the line for the first time. There were so many people, mostly students, lined up to see Trump speak. The line stretched from the doors of the Walter Theatre all the way across campus to the Schuldes Sports Center.
There were so many news trucks parked on campus, and there were hundreds of people protesting Trump’s appearance next to the Walter Theatre, all holding up signs with anti-Trump messages. Every few minutes I would see a police officer walk by. It was crazy for me to see all of this on such a small campus.
I stood in line for 45 minutes before people started being allowed to enter the theatre at 8 am. It was a painfully slow process, as each person had to be checked by Trump's security force before they could enter the theatre. I checked my email while I was waiting in line, and I saw an email from Trump’s press office letting me know I was approved for a media credential. This meant I didn’t have to wait in line and I would have a reserved seat in the press pen, the area where the media members sit. I decided to go pick up my media credential and then go back to my room to change into nicer clothes since I would be sitting among professionals. When I got back to the theatre and entered through the media entrance, I was checked in by security and allowed to enter the auditorium into the press area around 9:30 a.m.. I was texting my friends who I had been waiting in line with earlier and they said they didn’t get in, since Trump's campaign had oversold so many tickets. So, without my media credential, I wouldn’t have gotten into the event.
Trump ran about 20 minutes late, getting on stage around 10:20 a.m. He started off by complimenting Green Bay on its NFL team, the Packers, and more specifically, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. This led to a thunderous applause from the crowd. I think what he said next was disappointing for most people in attendance.
“You don’t want to be bored by talking about politics, so let’s talk about success. I love talking about success.”
If you’ve watched any of the Republican debates this campaign season, you know that Trump makes politics really entertaining. He’s not usually described as very politically correct or presidential, so "boring" is a word that certainly doesn’t describe Donald Trump. His antics during the debates have resulted in the media calling his campaign “the Trump circus” and calling him a circus clown.
Some people came to support Trump and others came simply because he’s arguably the biggest celebrity to ever come to St. Norbert and it might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see him talk in person. No matter the reason why anyone attended the event, I believe everyone wanted to hear him talk politics. I can understand why he chose to talk about success since he was addressing a group of young people who will soon be entering the workforce, hungry for success. Unfortunately, the only time he really talked about politics was when he attacked Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for his failure to manage the state’s budget.
Say what you will about his politics, but Donald Trump is an incredibly successful businessman. He wouldn’t be a relevant presidential candidate without his business empire. For the next hour or so, Trump told stories about how he became successful and success in general. He said that having lots of money doesn’t mean you’re successful (that’s easy to say when you’re one of the wealthiest people on the planet). He also spoke about how to keep your momentum while you're successful. Basically, he said that when you’re successful, if you stop doing what made you successful in the first place, your success is going to end and it’ll be very hard to get it back.
He told the audience that one of his favorite quotes comes from one of the most famous successful golfers of all time, Gary Player.
“The harder I work, the luckier I get,” Player once said. Trump said that quote has always really stuck with him and he believes it to be true. The more work you put into your work, the more good things will happen to you in your career.
A lot of what Trump said during his time on stage was very cliché, but most of it was very good advice on how to be successful (except for when he said it's best to surround yourself with unsuccessful people so you'll feel more successful). Donald Trump isn’t always the most eloquent speaker, but he knows how to keep the audience’s attention and he was funnier than I expected him to be. For the most part, he didn’t act like the clown that the media portrays him as. But flashes of that persona showed up when he called Ted Cruz "Lyin’ Ted” or called Marco Rubio “Little Marco.” Overall, I thought he sent a good message about success and how to achieve it. He was great as a guest speaker at the college, but for a stop on the presidential campaign trail, I just wish he would’ve talked more about his politics.
“We’re gonna win so much, we’re sick of it,” were Trump’s parting words for the crowd.
We were told Trump would take questions from the audience when he was done speaking. Instead, after he wrapped up his speech and shook a few hands, Trump was gone. No one got to ask the questions they had put so much thought into in hopes of “stumping the Trump.”
It was nice to see all of the extra attention that St. Norbert received leading up to Trump’s visit, but as soon as Donald Trump left, the campus’ 15 minutes of fame were over and everything went back to normal.
But for Trump, the circus rolls on.
