MOBILE, Ala.: President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday wrapped up his postelection victory tour, showing few signs of turning the page from his blustery campaign to focus on uniting a divided nation a month before his inauguration.
At each stop, the Republican has gloatingly recapped his election night triumph, reignited some old political feuds while starting some new ones, and done little to quiet the hate-filled chants of “Lock her up!” directed at Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Little changed at the tour’s finale at the same football stadium in Mobile, Ala., that hosted the biggest rally of his campaign. Trump saluted his supporters as true “patriots” with little attempt to reach out to the more than half of the electorate that didn’t vote for him.
“We are really the people who love this country,” said Trump.
He reminisced about his campaign announcement and his ride down Trump Tower’s golden escalator. His disputed a newspaper’s account of the size of the crowd at one of his rallies and bashed the press as dishonest. And he joked that he booked a small ballroom for his election night party so, if he lost, he “could get out!”
And he paid homage to the August 2015 rally here that he said jump-started his campaign. Though the crowd was not as large on Saturday, it was no less fervid, repeatedly chanting “Build the wall!” when Trump renewed his vow to build an impenetrable border at the Mexican border.
“We’re thanking the people of Alabama and we’re thanking the people of the South, because boy, did we do well,” said Trump, who remained undeterred when it began to rain on the outdoor stadium.
Trump brought his nominee for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, up onstage to receive cheers from his hometown crowd. When Trump’s plane landed, he received a water cannon salute from two firetrucks and was then greeted by several Azalea Trail Maids, local women dressed in antebellum Southern Belle outfits.
The raucous rallies, a hallmark of his campaign, are meant to salute supporters who lifted him to the presidency. But these appearances also have been his primary form of communication since the Nov. 8 election.
Trump has eschewed the traditional news conference held by a president-elect within days of winning. He’s done few interviews, announced his Cabinet picks via news release and continues to rely on Twitter to broadcast his thoughts and make public pronouncements.
Within days of beating Clinton, Trump suggested to aides that he resume his campaign-style barnstorming. Though he agreed to hold off until he assembled part of his Cabinet, Trump has repeatedly spoken of his fondness for being on the road. Aides are considering more rallies after he takes office, to help press his agenda with the public — a possibility that Trump embraced from the stage Saturday.
At the Pennsylvania rally, he launched into a 20-minute recap of his election night win.
Trump also thanked African-Americans who didn’t vote, saying, “They didn’t come out to vote for Hillary. They didn’t come out. And that was a big — so thank you to the African-American community.” Such rhetoric raised new questions about his ability to unify the country.
Earlier Saturday, Trump announced the nomination of South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney to be the head of the Office of Management and Budget, choosing a tea partyer and fiscal conservative with no experience assembling a government spending plan.
Mulvaney is a founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. In a statement, Trump called him a “very high-energy leader with deep convictions for how to responsibly manage our nation’s finances and save our country from drowning in red ink.”