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President Trump was comparing his 2016 campaign rally size to the rallies Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders was having that year, when the president took a detour.
"We have the biggest rallies ever in history," Trump said, turning from braggadocious to reflective. "I hope you enjoy it because you're never going to see it again. You will never see what we've done. You'll never see it happen again."
Trump was in South Carolina to boost two Senate candidates who he personally picked but who have struggled to ignite excitement among Republican voters: Darline Graham in South Carolina and Michael Whatley in North Carolina.
This was one of Trump's final rallies after a flurry of midterm campaign events over the past month. More than 25 rallies in October alone, mostly in red states where Republicans are facing serious political headwinds. The official purpose is to help those Republicans win their races, but for a president whose trademark has always been big raucous rallies, there was more to it.
Trump won't be on the ballot again and once these midterms are over, it's not clear how many Republican candidates will want voters pretending he is. Right now, though, that is his plea.
"Please pretend I'm on the ballot cause in a way I am on the ballot, because they want to do away with all of the tremendous things we've done. The tax cuts, the border," Trump said last week at a rally in Greenville, N.C.
Like any performer on what could be a farewell tour, Trump plays a lot of the greatest hits. He has a regular riff about tariffs.
"Tariffs. The tariffs. My favorite word," Trump said in Lubbock, Tex. "I always say it, but I had to change it to fifth favorite. You've heard me say this. I said it's my favorite word. It's made us rich."
But there are also new ones, like the instant classic about Ohio Sen. Jon Husted's butt, which, once Trump got a laugh, he just kept repeating everywhere he went.
"So, I'm studying him and I made the mistake of saying that I started off by studying his ass," Trump said. "I just wanted to see."
This wasn't just a key pitch in Ohio, where perhaps some voters could be persuaded by the idea of a senator with a well built behind.
"The audience loved it. By the way, [Husted] went up 12 points that day," Trump said confidently despite evidence to the contrary. "He went from being down to being up."
He even talked about Husted's butt in Texas, where Trump's reviews of Senate candidate Ken Paxton's looks have been less complimentary.
"Maybe I should do that with Ken Paxton, but I'm not sure your body is going to qualify," Trump said to laughs.
As a closing argument, Trump's message is unconventional at best. Unhelpful may be a better description. Even the $5,000 "Trump dividend" he's promising to all American adults if Republicans win the House and the Senate comes with an off message weave.
"You'll be my guest at Mar-a-Lago," Trump mused. "The problem is that for $5000, the most you'll be able to buy is a hamburger and maybe a small dessert. I'm not even sure you could buy that."
Trump added that Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, isn't a great place for the cost conscious.
In a year when affordability is a top issue, this is a performance for the Trump faithful, who eat it up.
Blake Marnell is often one of the first people through the gates at Trump's rallies. He's from San Diego, but was in Greenville, NC for Trump's rally there.
"I took the month of October off thinking that there would be a few rallies as it turned out there's a ton of them," Marnell said. "I'm just going from rally to rally. Some people like to go on cruises. I like political rallies."
Marnell isn't just any Trump fan. He's famous for his dedication, always in the front row, wearing a suit meant to be an homage to Trump's early campaign promise to build the wall. His alter ego is "Brick Suit."
"But President Trump calls me Mr. Wall," Marnell said.
Shouting out "Mr. Wall" is a regular feature of a Trump rally, along with the "Front Row Joe's" and "the lovely ladies from North Carolina." It's all part of the show.
Marnell is certain Trump will hold more rallies leading up to the 2028 presidential election, but he says these midterm rallies have felt different than when Trump actually was on the ballot.
Cindy New, from Emerald Isle, North Carolina said she voted for Trump three times, but had never seen him live. Heading into the Greenville rally, she said she was just hoping for a good show.
"He can't run again, they say, so I guess I gotta come while he gets close," New said. "I missed all the rest of them, so I gotta come see him once. I don't need to do it but once. One and done."
Trump's rally that night featured an Air Force One fly over and a nearly two hour speech from the president — the full experience.
In Fort Myers, Fla., Valerie Thivierge showed up bedazzled. She hadn't been to a Trump rally before either, despite owning a store in town that is devoted to him. She closed her store for the rally "of course."
"This is our life. This is what we do all year long and I want to see him," Thivierge said.
By Trump's telling, the people are why he keeps holding rallies. At a recent event in the Oval Office, he said it isn't easy standing up there for two hours "ranting and raving."
"You have the crowds," Trump said. "There's a lot of love in those rooms."
On Thursday, the Republican National Committee announced Trump would be canceling two weekend rallies that had been planned for Iowa and Kansas. Instead, they said, he would be holding a series of tele-rallies, a way to reach the party faithful more efficiently with just days left until the end of voting.
Less than 24 hours later, the in-person rallies were back, now both scheduled for Sunday.
"President Trump loves his supporters, and in addition to nearly 20 tele-rallies, he will hold back-to-back rallies in Kansas and Iowa on Sunday," said a source familiar with the scheduling change who wasn't authorized to speak on the record.
Trump's time at the center of the political universe is ticking down, but he keeps playing the hits. And the most loyal fans keep coming.
"We've been doing this together for 11 years and there's never been anything like it and there probably never will be anything like it again, politically or otherwise," Trump said as he closed out a rally in Corpus Christi, Tex. "So let's go out and do what we do best. Let's win on November 3rd. We've got to win."
There's fondness in these final days but also exhaustion, especially as the president faces down an election that might not go well for his party. Friday night in Daytona Beach, Fla., at what would have been his last rally, Trump blended bitterness with nostalgia.
"I thought this was it. I thought I could relax. 28 days in a row of this crap is a lot. It's a lot," Trump said.
"My voice is operating at about 49.2%," he added.
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