NEVER BEFORE HAVE I BEEN a bigger fan of retired NBA star Dirk Nowitzki.
asserted
I → retire → Nowitzki
It’s edging up toward 100 degrees, the sun is near its zenith, and several hundred of us lucky enough to attend the Republican midterm convention have been penned outside the entrance in a line snaking through a courtyard lined by shops that includes, surreally, a Tom Brady-branded outlet selling Pokémon cards.
asserted
that → edge → cards
Sweat pooling in the small of my back, a lukewarm bottle of water in hand, I saw a 23-foot oasis sculpted in the form of a trademark jumper: Dirk Nowitzki’s statue, erected in 2022 at the American Airlines Center to celebrate the 2011 NBA MVP, was providing the lone strip of shade like a human sundial.
asserted
statue → pool → sundial
God bless that German’s dirty one-legged fadeaway.
asserted
God → bless → fadeaway
Spirits are high outside but fading like that jumper, sapped by the blistering heat.
asserted
Spirits → fade → heat
One elderly woman, after asking why we were standing in line, decamped to a patio bar sitting empty since the Secret Service shut down businesses in the area.
asserted
Service → ask → area
A delegate from Delaware I’d been chatting with sidled over to a tent for respite; I was happy to let him slide back in when things started moving again.
asserted
things → chat → respite
We all had to stick together.
asserted
We → have → ?
But aside from the volunteers desperately handing out bottles of water to the folks baking in the hot sun, no one seemed to know what was going on.
asserted
what → hand → sun
Before entering the canopy for one last scan of our passes, two guys traveling to the convention from the Midwest and I placed our near-empty bottles of rapidly warming water on a growing mound of teetering plastic, there being no trash cans onsite.
asserted
guys → enter → plastic
“Now that’s a piece of modern art,” one of them quipped.
asserted
one → ’ → them
To be honest, I was a little surprised I’d been allowed inside the perimeter.
asserted
I → allow → perimeter
After applying for credentials, I hadn’t heard back from the support staff.
asserted
I → apply → staff
When I followed up with the nice young lady in charge of wrangling the press, she added a couple more staffers to the email thread.
asserted
she → follow → thread
“I thought ‘The Bulwark’ was denied,” an email from the “Dallas Media Ops” account replied.
asserted
email → think → account
“Not sure – but I would not recommend giving them credentials,” the wrangler replied.
asserted
wrangler → recommend → credentials
(I was crushed; I thought we had a rapport.)
asserted
we → crush → rapport
And then the thread went quiet—or maybe someone realized I was on it, and they removed me from it—so I assumed that was that.
asserted
that → go → it
My colleague Andrew Egger received an email with the logistics for entry and exit, including a site to pick up the much-coveted media credentials.
asserted
colleague → receive → credentials
I emailed again to ask if we had been okayed and heard nothing.
asserted
we → email → nothing
So I just drove over to the Hilton Anatole to see if, maybe, we had sneaked through.
asserted
we → drive → Anatole
And, sure enough, a quintet of passes was just waiting there for the taking.
asserted
quintet → wait → taking
I had earned the right to stand in the shadow of Dirk Nowitzki and wait my turn for entry into Trump’s big midterm party.
asserted
I → earn → party
The forty-eight hours to follow would be hot, sticky fun.
asserted
hours → follow → ?
THERE WERE THREE TIERS of attendees at Trumpapalooza, broadly speaking, and you tended to be able to pick them out by
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asserted
you → be → post
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asserted
subscription → get → chats
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asserted
who → help → membership
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