Clemson-South Carolina football game, Donald Trump receives a standing ovation
Donald Trump had a warm welcome in South Carolina after heading to Williams-Brice Stadium© Image by Daily Mail
South Carolina fans welcomed Donald Trump with open arms when he arrived at Williams-Brice Stadium for the school's football rivalry game against Clemson.
In the conservative-leaning state that former US President Trump won in both 2016 and 2020, the 5-6 Gamecocks were hosting the 7-4 Tigers.
Although Republicans make up the majority of voters in South Carolina, USC is located in Richland County, which supported his 2020 and 2016 presidential rivals, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, respectively, with large majorities of votes.
Still, Trump's presence at Saturday night's Palmetto State rivalry game was clearly welcomed by the crowd, as he waved to them from his seat prior to kickoff.
Fans assembled for the state's biggest sporting event of the year, the Palmetto Bowl, could be heard yelling "We want Trump!" when he initially arrived at the arena. Trump is what we want!
In fan film from Williams-Brice Stadium, the 77-year-old was seen soaking up the attention as he attempted to outdo Republican rival Nikki Haley on her home ground.
Haley, a trustee and Clemson alum who was twice elected governor of South Carolina, was not present.
Trump also entered the field during the halftime break as a guest of Gov. Henry McMaster, Haley's replacement, to an equally enthusiastic ovation from the home crowd.
The senior U.S. senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, was part of his entourage that evening as they made their way to a private suite through a veritable tunnel of Trump supporters. This gave the former president a demonstration of local political power at a game that featured Haley's alma mater, Clemson, where she also serves as a trustee.
Throughout his one and only tenure in office, Trump has made numerous trips to watch college football games. He attended an Iowa State game in September, a number of SEC games, national championship games, and Army-Navy contests.
Amidst the throngs of Gamecock and Tiger supporters converging to the stadium on Saturday afternoon, over six electronic billboards in Columbia's capital city prominently displayed a statement acknowledging his defeat in the 2020 election and his ongoing legal disputes. "You were defeated." You are at fault. Donald, welcome to Columbia.
Meanwhile, several sellers outside the venue peddled Trump-related items from the previous election campaign, such as "Trump 2020" flags.
Trump did not attend a dominant college football program (his alma university, Penn, is in sixth place in the Ivy League at 3–4). He is from New York, a region that is known to favor the NFL.
But he's welcomed the South and Midwest college football crowds, where he's always been warmly accepted.
Additionally, the likely Republican nominee for 2024 received a standing ovation when he showed up alongside artist Kid Rock, promoter Dana White, and conservative media figure Tucker Carson at UFC 295 in New York.
He was seen chatting with singer Kid Rock close to the Octagon. Bill Burr, an actor and comedian, was also present in the crowd, along with Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, and actor Jared Leto.
The crowd had been hoping that Trump would attend the event for the whole week, and just before the main card began, he made a spectacular arrival.
However, the former president is currently facing several legal challenges, such as four criminal indictments and a civil fraud trial in New York.
Two of them have to do with his purported attempts to rig the 2020 presidential election; the other two have to do with his handling of confidential materials and charges of falsifying hush money accounting.
In the New York civil fraud trial, Trump even took the stand earlier this month.
