President Donald Trump called an enthusiastic supporter to join him on stage soon after he started addressing crowds in Melbourne, Florida, during his Saturday rally. The supporter had already been spotted in media appearances when the president recognized him and called him on stage in a move that could have been a potential Secret Service disaster.
“Look at this guy,” Trump told the crowds. “This guy is great. Come on up!”
The Secret Service patted down Gene Huber, who was wearing a black Donald Trump T-shirt, before he went up to join the president, who said: “So he’s been all over television saying the best things and I see him standing and didn’t you get here at, like, four in the morning?”
Huber took the stage to thank Trump for doing the things he promised to do during the presidential campaign.
“Mr. President, thank you so, sir. We the people, our movement is the reason why our president of the United States is standing here in front of us today,” Huber said. “When President Trump during the election promised all these things that he was going to do for us, I knew he was going to do this for us.”
As Huber returned to the crowd, Trump said: “A star is born. I wouldn’t say that Secret Service was thrilled with that, but we know our people, right?”
Huber may have shot to instant stardom because of the president’s overtures, and in a interview with CNN later in the day, he confessed that Trump is such a great source of inspiration for him that he has a six-foot cardboard cutout of the president in his house.
“I salute that every single day and I pray and I tell him, ‘Mr. President, I pray for your safety today’,” Huber told CNN’s Pamela Brown. “And I’m not lying, I do that every single day to the president, but he’s cardboard.”
He ended the interview by thanking the network for the opportunity but — in line with Trump’s outburst against the “fake media” — said: “Let’s just be a little, little nicer to our president. Thank you so much.”
The White House Director of Social Media Dan Scavino, who describes himself as the conductor of the “#TrumpTrain,” posted a video on Twitter thanking Huber for his support for the president.
Trump used the rally to take potshots at the media again. He told his supporters: “ I also want to speak to you without the filter of the fake news. The dishonest media which has published one false story after another with no sources, even though they pretend they have them, they make them up in many cases, they just don’t want to report the truth and they’ve been calling us wrong now for two years.”
“They don’t get it,” he added. “But they’re starting to get it.”
He also quoted former President Thomas Jefferson in saying “nothing can be believed which is seen in a newspaper.”
The rally also saw an appearance by first lady Melania Trump, who has not been spotted in the public very often following her husband’s inauguration. She led the crowd with the Lord’s Prayer, saying she will “always stay true to myself, and be truthful to you.”
President Trump hugs a supporter — identified as Gene Huber — he invited onstage to speak during a “Make America Great Again” rally at Orlando Melbourne International Airport in Melbourne, Florida, Feb. 18, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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