TAMPA, Fla. — Written on the back of Kathy Fallon’s shirt was a vision of the future. Of a future, anyway. Trump 2024, Trump 2028, Trump 2032. For now, it’s still 2026, with a midterm election in just over a week. And on Friday, Fallon drove from Amelia Island for a rally with President Donald Trump on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. She’d brought her grandson for ...

President Donald Trump takes the stage, signaling toward supporters, during a rally at Alico Arena at Florida Gulf Coast University on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, in Fort Myers, Florida.

Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

TAMPA, Fla. — Written on the back of Kathy Fallon’s shirt was a vision of the future. Of a future, anyway.

Trump 2024, Trump 2028, Trump 2032.

For now, it’s still 2026, with a midterm election in just over a week. And on Friday, Fallon drove from Amelia Island for a rally with President Donald Trump on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers.

She’d brought her grandson for his first Trump rally. It was her fourth. And going by the message written on the back of her shirt, it might not be her last.

Trump 2024, Trump 2028, Trump 2032.

“The best part is waiting in line, because you meet people,” Fallon said. “I’ve made friends that have lasted for years.”

Trump was in very friendly Republican territory in ruby red southwest Florida on Friday, in the state the president still calls home.

He came for a series of rallies for Republican candidates fighting to maintain control of Congress amid sagging national approval ratings — though you wouldn’t have sensed that inside the arena.

He urged voters to elect U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds as Florida’s next governor and return U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody to Washington. Both spoke before Trump took the stage.

Trump spent a bit of his roughly 90-minute speech boosting the candidates, mostly by attacking their Democratic opponents. He called Senate candidate Angie Nixon a “Marxist maniac” and described gubernatorial candidate David Jolly, a former Republican congressman, as disloyal and “crazy.”

The he began touting his own accomplishments, such as stock market gains, renovations to the White House’s doors, capturing Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, and the renaming of gulfs and lakes — assuring the crowd he was only kidding about renaming the Atlantic Ocean for himself.

Trump told the crowd he’d give them all $5,000 if Republicans won both houses of Congress, the same way he has at rallies across the South in recent days.

Trump has spent much of October campaigning in traditionally Republican strongholds. Republicans say it’s intended to energize Trump supporters who might otherwise sit out. Democrats argue that Trump’s sagging popularity has forced the party to defend territory it once considered safe. Polls have his approval rating at an all-time low of about 30%.

Were his fans feeling the polls? Among the MAGA faithful who’d gathered, within the sea of red hats, shirts featuring Trump as the Terminator and red, white and blue cowboy boots, the answer was not at all.

“Not in here, and not in Florida,” said Naples resident Lacey Peterson, who was at her first Trump rally. “You go anywhere in the state of Florida and you can wear Trump merch, America merch. doesn’t matter. And somebody will find you and say, God bless America, God bless you. The polls might say that, but it just doesn’t feel that way.”

One section of bleachers directly behind the lectern and in the eye of the cameras was filled with supporters who looked young old enough to be Florida Gulf Coast undergrads. The rest of the arena held many retirees. Demographically, the southwest Florida region is one of the oldest in the nation.

Asked if she knew any Republicans who’d stepped away from Trump over the economy, Peterson added, “Not anyone I know.”

Trump is significantly more popular in Florida than nationally, with polls showing an approval rating closer to 50%.

Within the arena, those negative nationwide polls were a non-starter. Not one person interviewed by The Tampa Bay Times trusted them. Several suspected a flat-out conspiracy.

“I’ve never been asked,” said Port Charlotte resident Ted Gjerde. “Those things are all skewed. It all depends who you ask.”

Dolly Wilson, 81, said the cost of gas and groceries had been high under President Joe Biden, so it really wasn’t much different. She was most appreciative, she said, that Trump had set the country on a path to law and order that had made everyone safer.

“You have to think about who is taking the polls,” she said, echoing another common sentiment in the crowd. “I really think they’re made up to sway people from showing up to vote.”

For many, being surrounded by thousands of people who share their beliefs is a big part of the attraction.

Trump spoke of a feeling of “nostalgia” for his rallies, a unique aspect of his 11 years in presidential politics. He spent a section of his speech describing some of the massive crowds, tens of thousands strong, he’d amassed over the years.

He mentioned a previous rally held just down the road that had been huge — presumably an Oct. 31, 2018 event at Hertz Arena in Estero that drew 8,000.

Alico Arena was packed to capacity on Friday, a White House spokesperson said, but the building only held 3,500 people.

The concourse and concessions line were filled with people bonding over their anger over “criminals” being allowed into the U.S., and appreciation for Trump stopping “men” from competing in women’s sports.

Mattieu Rudkowski, 70, from Ontario, Canada had come with his wife, who wore an American flag as a cape. The snowbirds spend winter in Florida. Rudkowski didn’t wear any MAGA gear, but said he admired Trump’s approach to immigration.

The approval ratings he wrote off as people having a short memory for all the good Trump had done. When the conflict in Iran ends, he said, the tide will turn back just as quickly. On high gas prices, he said it was all relative.

“In Canada, where I live gas is about a dollar higher,” he said, attributing it to “weak” politicians there. “I was in Europe three weeks ago. It is $7, $8 a gallon. I don’t know why people here complain.”

Several of the attendees lamented what it would be like if there were no future Trump rallies. They offered energy, community, an excuse to bust out their shirts with Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore, or Trump asking “who’s your daddy,” a lot more faded than when this all started.

As Trump wound down the speech, he, too, sounded somewhat wistful.

“We’ve been doing this together for 11 years and there’s never been anything like it,” he told the crowd. “There never will be anything like it. “The crowds, the people, the love, the size of the rallies,” Trump said. “It’s never going to happen again.”

Never say never. Around the arena, dozens stood in line for red and black MAGA hats and Trump baseball cards that cost $15.

Where the money from the cards went exactly, the guy taking payment couldn’t say.

“It’s donations.”

But for what? A political committee?

“Whatever Trump wants.”