The Power of Trump's Magnetism in One Photo

[Celerity]

Capturing the intensity of a crowd’s adulation

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/peter-van-agtmael-trump-rally-photo/620842/



At a Donald Trump rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, on January 28, 2020, supporters turned to watch the president approach the podium. “I think it’s more interesting to look at the movement he created than at the man himself,” the photographer Peter van Agtmael says. He chose to capture the moment before the president’s entrance, as members of the audience held their own cameras aloft in anticipation.

This made “the intensity of the adulation for Trump,” stoked by upbeat music and raucous chants, the focus of the image. A year later, van Agtmael photographed the crowd that gathered outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “It felt like a culmination of what I’d seen,” he says.



A detail of the photograph (Peter van Agtmael / Magnum)

[peacefreak2.0]

1. Take away the phones and

it looks like Nazi Germany. No masks, either. Best we can hope for is the culling of the herd.

[Hoyt]

2. Jeez. I look at that and think it's NASCAR, a modern Klan meeting, or trump rally.

[chowder66]

3. This is what Trump sees when he looks back at them.....

https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/money-pile-100-dollar-bills-picture-id157308559

[RockRaven]

4. Someone needs to implant in TFG's brain the steadfast belief that cell-phone-guns exist...

And he will insist they be banned from his events out of fear of assassination.

[Progressive Jones]

12. Mine has a Jewish Laser. nt

[Journeyman]

5. For me, it has always been the images of these women . . .

These images both came out of 2016. That they were so intense so early on seemed indicative of an emotional attachment perhaps beyond the norm.

[Celerity]

6. the 2nd pic is the archetype for all of them

[eppur_se_muova]

14. Her other child is Bat Boy. nt

[Poiuyt]

30. I'm dying here!

Too funny!

[Progressive Jones]

31. LMAO !!! nt

[kairos12]

22. Jonestown candidates all.

[iemanja]

7. Complete with the Hitler youth

Tell me that kid doesn't look creepy.

[alphafemale]

24. Reminds me of those kids in the movie "Jesus Camp"

From years ago where those kids were worshiping a cardboard cutout of George Bush.

[Progressive Jones]

32. That was some sick shit. I saw that. nt

[blogslug]

8. meh

This fandom has nothing to do with his "magnetism". It has to do with a portion of the population that knows their terrible old ways are dying. They'll do anything and follow anyone who promises to keep their horrible ideology alive. If he were to drop dead tomorrow they'd find a replacement for him within a week.

[NJCher]

10. incredible, isn't it?

that so many people are tied into such backwards, outmoded, destructive ways of behaving.

Do you see one Hispanic or black person in those photos? No, not a one. I would be embarrassed to be in such a monoculture.

[Progressive Jones]

13. The real sad part is that they can't really understand why their old ways are dying.

They don't understand, or are incapable of understanding, that it's all part of social evolution.
They've been buying victimhood cards by the truckload. If their life is shit, it's someone else's fault.
They refuse to move on.
Their old ways suck in the eyes of any level headed American.

[The Magistrate]

21. True, Sir

There's not one real problem they have they didn't vote for the politician who saw to its being inflicted on them....

[Baked Potato]

9. Everybody gets a picture of the monster or nobody would believe them. Nt

[bamagal62]

11. It's so difficult for me

To comprehend.

[MFM008]

15. Nazis got real excited to.

...........................

[smirkymonkey]

16. So fucking twisted!

I feel physically sick.

[samplegirl]

17. I see Dumb people everywhere!

[no_hypocrisy]

18. I see this phenomenon more as a vacuum in the lives of these people

more than a mindless adoration of a corrupt individual. They would follow another Trump acolyte if presented.

[tanyev]

20. Yes. His so-called magnetism only works on certain types of people.

Ferromagatism?

[madaboutharry]

19. I see people who refuse to accept that the world has changed.

These are people stuck in a time warp, refusing to accept that society and culture is moving on without them.

[SWBTATTReg]

23. Considering that they stack the audience where it'll give them more visual impact, I don't...

trust any of these fake audience pictures at all. They cram all of them into a tiny section of the stadium, so they can make a more impactful visual recording. Fake in a way.

[spanone]

25. Lemmings

[jalan48]

26. Cult of Personality

[moondust]

27. From a different angle.

[Vinca]

28. Putting the lunacy of Trump aside, I'll never understand why people experience life through their

phones. Must be my age.

[bluestarone]

29. The way i look at it is

EVERYONE of them have taken the mark of the beast!!