At a rally of Tennessee and Georgia supporters of President Donald Trump on Sunday, business owners and supporters prioritized political fervor and fellowship against business implications and COVID-19 safety.
Around 150 vehicles – motorcycles, trucks, cars and a firetruck – lined in rows, sporting Trump flags and decals, Thin Blue Line police flags, American flags, Gadsden flags, Confederate flags and similar decor in wait for the Trump Train parade which took to the highway late Sunday.
Participants drove around the North Georgia and Southeast Tennessee region in support of Trump. At the start, vehicles blared their horns, played patriotic music over loudspeakers and chanted “four more years,” and similar sayings as they drove by with people hanging out of sunroofs, windows and even open van doors, waving flags and holding signs.
The parade, one of the largest such Trump Trains in the area, came at the end of the nearly five-hour Chattanooga Trump Train and Back the Blue Rally in the parking lot of Ringgold Georgia’s Gateway Business Mall. A couple hundred Trump supporters rallied there Sunday to celebrate the president and hope for his re-election, just two weeks before the November election.
“We’re just all Trump supporters from all walks of life and we love this country and support American values,” said Alexis Tranthom, a Chattanooga woman selling Trump merchandise at Sunday’s event. “It’s good for us all to come out and support the president, and it all started from a Back the Blue event too, and we’re even going to donate some of the proceeds to the officer who was shot last week,” she added, referencing East Ridge Corporal Terry Prescott, who was shot at a nearby pharmacy last weekend.