A sea of three-fingered gestures only meant one thing

He came onto the stage bang on time.

No need to keep the faithful in suspense anymore.

They know what they are getting now and they are delighted.

A hundred days in, President Trump was back, for the first time since the inauguration, at a rally; back with the grass roots of this MAGA movement.

This is the place where he feels most at home.

The entry music was the unlikely theme tune to his revolution – the YMCA.

He danced on stage. He’s enjoying this second term: unhindered by the critics, unburdened by the constitution, unopposed by Congress.

“It feels a little bit like he’s a king, not a president?” I asked one woman in the crowd.

“Maybe, but that’s OK,” she said. Another chimed in: “He is a king!” To all of them he is.

It was a speech of course full of superlatives. It was his scorecard of his first three months.

It was the speech they’ve all heard before. We all have. But now it comes with a confidence, a swagger, the power of his presidency, and a gleeful aggression too.

“Thousands of corrupt, incompetent and unnecessary deep state bureaucrats, you’re fired. Get the hell out of here. You’re fired. Get out of here.”

On immigration he can point to a clear policy achievement these past 100 days.

The crossings on the southern border have dropped to a fraction, but it’s his court-defying methods which have troubled many. The deportations to foreign jails with no due process were celebrated here.

As footage played of men deported with no convictions, no court appearances and in defiance of an American federal court order, I asked one supporter if it made him feel at all uncomfortable.

“No it does not. That’s what should happen to anybody that comes into the United States illegally, or pushing drugs from another country. That’s what is going to happen and we’ve got a lot of bad actors in this country.”

“They’ve not been through any judicial process…” I said.

“There doesn’t need to be any,” he shot back.

In the crowd, a sea of three-fingered gestures. Three fingers for three terms. They want him to run again in 2028.

Beyond the venue, the other side of all this.

On a windy cross-roads, a crowd which grew over the day to about one thousand, painted a bleak picture of the path ahead.

“It’s unnerving. There is a lot of unrest in our country right now and I only see it going one of a few ways and I hope I am wrong,” one man said.

He wouldn’t reveal his face or his name for fear of repercussions.

“They are going after the colleges, they are going after the poor people, they are going after the disabled – the people who can least defend themselves…”

There were signs comparing Trump to Hitler. They’re common these days.

I put it to one elderly protester that the Hitler comparison risks weakening their argument. Trump is not doing what Hitler did.

“You mean by sending six million people to the gas chambers? Neither did Hitler to begin with. He wasn’t saying that. He first made people the enemy and right now Trump is making the immigrants the enemy… It is so frightening what we see happening in our country. I know this scenario all too well and I can’t believe this is happening in my country.”