Trump entertains crowd at event with Bill O’Reilly

Former President Trump delivered a dose of history — from his vantage point — Saturday to an army of supporters in Sunrise.

That meant deriding the current president, claiming the election was stolen, and portraying the country under Joe Biden as a crime-ridden, inflation-plagued mockery overrun by foreign criminals.

In other words, the event was “peak Trump,” and his fans reacted with applause, standing ovations and — when appropriate — loud booing.

“Our country in my opinion is no longer respected,” he said. “… Every country in the world takes advantage of the United States.”

Later he added, “it’s a horrible thing to say but I don’t feel America, right now, is great.”

Trump had few comments that veered from what he has often said publicly.

But he made the occasional unrehearsed comment. When the microphone failed and O’Reilly went silent, Trump said he thought something had happened to him.

“I thought he went down, which frankly would have been very exciting.”

Thousands of people donned their red baseball caps or favorite Donald Trump T-shirts in the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise Saturday afternoon to see the former president and conservative darling Bill O’Reilly.

The crowd chanted, “Let’s go, Brandon” while waiting for the two to appear.

The chant is an inside joke among Trump supporters, a derogatory chorus that became popular when a crowd chanting “F--- Joe Biden,” was misheard.

Many seats remained empty in the cavernous arena. The top level was closed and ticket buyers were “upgraded” to the lower bowl.

Kay Peters, wrapped in a flag scarf, peering through flag sunglasses and wearing a “Make

America great again” cap, extolled Trump’s virtues before walking inside.

She traveled from Fort Pierce to see “my two favorite people in the world,” a statement her son responded to with a cheerful acknowledgement: “I know there’s a hierarchy.”

Peters said she couldn’t speak about Trump without crying.

“I’m 95 years old,” she said. “I remember what a patriotic country we were in the ’40s, in the ’50s.”

Peters said she believes Trump can save the country.

It goes beyond that, she added.

“I feel God sent him to save our country.”

Her son, David Peters of Miami, 65, said it’s unfair to label Trump supporters as monolithic. He said he liked Trump’s economic policies and doesn’t have to embrace all of Trump — and his New Yorker mouth — in order to support him.

“There’s more that binds us together than divides us,” he said of Americans.

Not everyone was so genial.

Members of the Proud

Boys white nationalists — a group that has resorted to political violence to achieve its ends — were present.

Also present: many espousers of the false theory, propagated by Trump himself, that “Trump won” the election.

Trump, a South Floridian now, has been friends for years with O’Reilly and was a regular guest on FOX’s “The O’Reilly Factor.” In 2017, Trump publicly supported O’Reilly and called him a “good person” when O’Reilly was accused of sexual harassment.

Though Broward County is a bastion of Democrats,

Trump still receives a warm welcome; he won hundreds of thousands of votes in South Florida. In the 2020 election, Florida went for Trump, boosted by voters in Miami-Dade County.

The arena, situated just off the Sawgrass Expressway in western Broward County’s city of Sunrise, is a central location for Palm Beach, Broward and Miami -Dade fans to convene. (Many still know it by its former name, the BB&T Center, home of the Florida Panthers hockey team.)

The show moves to Orlando on Sunday, Houston on Dec. 18, and Dallas on

Dec. 19.

Unlike Trump’s campaign and presidency rallies, which were free of charge, this event was for paying customers.

A ticket in front of the stage was listed on Ticketmaster on Thursday night for $7,500 plus fees, for a total of $7,839.45: “Includes One Seat in the front row 45 Minute Pre-Show Meet and Greet and a picture of ticketholder with President Donald J. Trump and Bill O’Reilly.”

Most seats, though, went for $100 plus fees ($138 total), to hear “The History Tour,” with the tantalizing-to-fans premise that Trump would “provide a never-beforeheard inside view of his administration — which will be historical in and of itself.”

According to a spokeswoman for Broward County’s hockey arena, there were no “special media accommodations for the show,” and journalists — like any member of the public — could not take a laptop, recording device or professional camera.

Masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were not required.