I won't say there were a lot of people packed into Trump Bar in the middle of Manhattan to watch the first primetime Republican presidential debate Thursday night, but I will say the audience was often clapping for the guy who owns the place--Donald Trump. He's the businessman who's famous for being famous, the one who's leading the race for the Republican nomination.
I met a man at Trump Bar watching the Fox News debate who said he's spent most of his life voting for Democrats, and yet he posed for a photo while holding up a Donald Trump bumper sticker. He later stuffed a bunch of Trump swag in his pockets on his way out.
Another guy--a self-described Republican--blasted the trio of moderators for asking Trump loaded questions. A woman at a table in the corner clapped and hollered every time Trump showed up on screen.
The whole bar applauded Trump's answer to how he'd change America's immigration system, and all he really said was he'd build a huge wall along the Mexican border that could have a "fancy door" for people entering the country legally.
Trump's immigration plans getting rave reviews at Trump Bar. #GOPDebate https://t.co/IuZ06LMbxn— Colin Daileda (@ColinDaileda) August 7, 2015
Here are some more Trump debate lines that got a bunch of praise at his bar:
1. "We never win anymore."
Applause.
2. "Our leaders are dumb."
Laughter.
3. "We don't have time for political correctness."
More applause.
Let's stick with that last one. It seems important because the candidate who got the second-most applause inside Trump Bar Thursday night was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Now, maybe that's to be expected or maybe it's an aberration, but let's take a second to remember how Cruz got to that stage. He's challenged Republican Party leadership plenty of times. He's a rebel who says whatever comes to his mind, or at least he's carefully cultivated the public persona of a renegade who doesn't care what other people think.
Remind you of anyone?
And so we arrive at a place where it's hard to tell whether people were clapping for Trump because they'd vote for him or because he's the most entertaining thing about American politics.
Just asked these guys if they'd vote for Trump and they were eehhhhhh on it. Those stickers tho... #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/1mclPXobTj— Colin Daileda (@ColinDaileda) August 7, 2015
It's way too early in the election cycle to know for sure, and, in general, it's difficult to pinpoint when voters shift from thinking: "This guy is funny" to "Well, if I like him, I should vote for him." I asked several people at Trump Bar whether they'd vote for the candidate and, while almost everyone said they like him, few were ready to commit.
When it comes to the 2016 election, not much is clear at the moment, but that Democratic voter who stuffed his pockets with free Trump swag said it best: "Everyone is watching for Trump."