'Let me ask you a question,' President Trump said to the crowd at his final rally in South Carolina last week. 'How many people in this room were ever polled? I mean, seriously, because I'm curious...'
Trump went on to explain that he sees 'polls, polls, polls' come out every day but he never personally knew anyone who was surveyed. In answer to his question, a very small smattering, among several thousand in an arena in Rock Hill, South Carolina, raised their arms.
'Two hands. I mean, it's amazing,' Trump concluded, looking puzzled. It's clear that he simply doesn't, or is choosing not to, believe the avalanche of polls predicting a midterms blue wave and that he is banking on a hidden Republican vote – hidden because the pollsters didn't ask his supporters.
His experiment was unscientific, but not the only evidence the blue wave might hit a red wall. The Washington Post and George Mason University recently revealed that, in their polling of Kansas, Democrats were nearly three times more likely than Republicans to respond to surveys.
In South Carolina, Trump was at the start of a final 72-hour rally blitz, which would also take him to Florida, Kansas and Iowa.
It was the culmination of an intense October in which he held over 25 rallies, sometimes speaking for up to two hours at a time.
Trump launched a final rally blitz in a bid to rescue beleaguered Republican candidates
After he returned from South Carolina on Thursday, a Reuters reporter made the mistake of asking the 80-year-old if he was getting 'sick of traveling.' Trump unloaded on the unfortunate scribe, and promptly reinstated two rallies he had cancelled.
When he returned to a stage, on Friday in Daytona Beach, Florida, he admitted: '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. My voice is about operating at about 49.2 percent... and then they called me in Iowa, and they called me in Kansas.'
At one point, he stopped to wipe his eye with a wet napkin. Trump said he'd like to use eye drops but, if he did, the 'fake news' would report that he was 'seriously ill, that there's something wrong with me.'
Behind the scenes, there had been much discussion among Republican strategists, at the national and state level, about what Trump's role in this midterm cycle should be.
A huge problem for the party is that many of his most ardent supporters are so-called 'low-propensity' voters, meaning they turn out for him, but not for congressional candidates.
The best way to get them to the polls in large numbers was for Trump to go and tell them.
Trump paused to wiped his eye during a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, saying the 'fake news' would probably report he was 'seriously ill'
The rise of early voting was also key to the decision to use him so much. When Trump does a rally in a state with early voting, supporters can go straight to a polling station the next morning.
However, the strategy has its limits. At his rally for embattled GOP Senate candidate Darline Graham in South Carolina, the Daily Mail spoke to numerous supporters who had come from across the border in North Carolina. They weren't there to see Graham. Trump urged people to get to the polls, but many of them couldn't vote in the state.
The calculation strategists made was whether Trump could get more low-propensity voters to the polls than the number of independents and moderate Republicans he might alienate when he visited crucial states.
That too was a problem highlighted in South Carolina where, a few hours after his rally, the Daily Mail encountered a woman at the main nearby polling station.
A Republican, she had been disgusted by Trump's antics at the rally and had gone straight to vote for the Democratic Senate candidate Dr Annie Andrews, mainly because she objected to Trump calling her 'Tranny Annie.'
'That's not a nice word,' the former Republican said.
Trump's crowd sizes varied during his midterm rallies but in Daytona Beach, Florida the audience was large and enthusiastic. 'Crowd size means success,' he told them
Supporters wearing 'Blacks for Trump' shirts and backing Byron Donalds for Florida governor in Daytona Beach
Trump has hammered his closing message - that Republicans delivered dramatic reductions in illegal border crossings and violent crime, stock market records, and low unemployment. The country is 'hot,' he says. It brings cheers in the room, but that message is not resonating with a wider audience beset by high the cost of living.
Throughout this midterm rally-fest, Trump's off-Teleprompter meanderings have been longer, stranger – he gave the English language at least one new word ('Watercane' anyone?) – and sometimes more controversial, than ever.
They have featured some headline-making, head-scratching vignettes – most notably his praise for Nicki Minaj's 'beautiful ass,' and his similar admiration for the posterior of Jon Husted, the Republican Senate candidate in Ohio, which he described as 'like a pile of muscle.'
In Florida, Trump attempted to explain the Husted comments, but it was like watching a man dig himself a deeper hole.
Later, when someone in the crowd shouted, 'We love you,' Trump said 'I love you,' back, only to then realize it was a man.
There has also been a distinct air of nostalgia, not least from Trump himself. In Florida, he estimated that he'd done 1,100 rallies since 2015. He shouted out a group of women from North Carolina who have followed him everywhere, along with the 'Front Row Joes.' There was special mention too for 'Mr Wall,' wearing a brick-patterned suite to represent the border wall, and sitting in the seat directly in front of the lectern. Trump said, when the rallies end, he will don a similar suit.
'Mr Wall' – aka Blake Marnell, 61, from San Diego – has driven to most of the midterm rallies, racking up 12,000 miles. He told the Daily Mail this cycle has seen Trump freer than ever to ad lib because he isn't on the ballot.
'I think he gets to be a little bit more of a showman actually in these rallies because there just isn't there isn't really a direct repercussion with people voting for him,' he said. 'So he has a lot more freedom in terms of what he says and the guests he can bring up.
'I think his energy is as great as ever. I'm not noticing anything that indicates to me that that this is a different President Trump compared to the previous rallies. He's just got more leeway and he's using it. I think he's getting a kick out of it.'
In the final stretch, it was pretty clear Trump was having fun.
Officials have spoken about the stage being a refuge for him, the only place where there's no way for him to see bad news.
His approval ratings are at record lows, gas and diesel prices aren't soaring, the war in Iran drags on. But in front of him are fans screaming their heads off like they're at a rock concert.
Before his stump speech, a big screen shows a thundering video declaring that 'God Made Trump' as a 'caretaker' for planet Earth.
And he ended the Florida rally by showing CNN footage of a poll indicating 98 percent of MAGA Republicans intend to vote for Republican congressional candidates in the midterms.
Another of the CNN polls showed Republicans made him their most admired ever president ever, by six or seven times over Abraham Lincoln.
'Mr Wall' said President Trump appeared to have given himself more leeway to speak his mind during the midterm rallies
Trump went as himself to a Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago during a break from campaigning
On his final day on the road Trump rallied for Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson in Iowa, where voters are angry about fuel prices
After a stop at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday for a Halloween party – he went as himself – Trump spent Sunday swooping in for final appearances in Iowa and Kansas.
They were unexpected states to finish on. In 2024, Trump won Iowa in a landslide – by 13 points – but, amid soaring diesel prices, Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson is in danger.
At most rallies Trump had been speaking for 90 to 100 minutes, but in Dubuque Iowa he went even longer, talking for over two hours. At one point, he told the crowd: 'This isn't rambling. This isn't rambling. This is genius.' He finished off dancing to YMCA.
From there, he was on to an airport in Salina, Kansas where Air Force One performed a flyover for the fervent faithful.
Not long ago, Kansas seemed like a moonshot for Democrats. The last time it sent a Democrat to the US Senate was 1932, during the Great Depression. It has given Republicans the longest run of success – 94 years – in any state by either party.
Republicans losing Kansas would be a political megaquake. That's why the decision was made for Trump to finish there, returning less than two weeks after his previous rally in the state.
'I'm closing it down tonight, he said. 'I could have been home watching television.'
His final carrot for Kansans was a $4.3 billion investment by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the state next year, which will help 15,000 people buy homes.
Embattled Republican senator Roger Marshall, who has tied himself closely to the President, was certainly glad to see him.
'Glory, Glory Hallelujah! God made Trump!,' he declared.
Overall, the crowds have been smaller than Trump's his presidential runs, but it is the midterms so that is to be expected. It is also partly a function of Team Trump becoming more nimble, setting up rallies with only a few days notice in states where GOP candidates have been struggling.
In South Carolina, the arena, previously the venue for the world Cornhole championships, was less than half full.
By contrast, in Florida, Trump packed out a large arena and the crowd was hugely enthusiastic, even after waiting for hours baking in the sun, a few of them being wheeled off for medical attention.
That showing prompted Trump to reel off a list of his biggest crowds – the record being well over 100,000 in New Jersey, he said – and to explain why he's obsessed with them.
'Crowd size means success,' he said.
Trump also uses audiences as a sounding board to see which of his policies or ideas gets the biggest cheer. In Florida, the loudest were for removing Ilhan Omar from Congress, his pledge to give everyone $5,000 if Republicans keep the House and Senate, and calling Robert De Niro a 'moron.'
President Trump finishes off his rally spree in Kansas with embattled Republican senator Roger Marshall
An aerial view of one of Trump's closing rallies in Daytona Beach, Florida
At a rally the previous week in Wichita, Kansas, the crowd was also noticeably large.
A man at the front of the line, who was dressed head to toe in Stars and Stripes and had been waiting eight hours, looked around at the thousands-strong army behind him.
They were the 'silent majority,' he told the Daily Mail, the voters who don't talk to pollsters but would speak loudly on November 3.
Another encouraging sign for the GOP has been the number of first time rally-goers at Trump events.
'This is my first rally and I'm very excited,' said nurse Nancy Arias as she waited outside the convention center in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Other first-timers were motivated by a feeling that, with the President constitutionally barred from running again, time is running out to catch the Trump Show live, rather than on TV.
When John Magnano heard Trump was coming to Daytona Beach, he didn't want to make the same error he did years ago with The King.
'Elvis came to our city once, and I said, oh I'll catch him next time. And then he died the next year,' said the 76-year-old retiree.
'I never got to see Elvis. He (Trump) might not come here again. I like what he's doing and I want to see him in person.'
Trump's midterms rallies were frequently interrupted as arenas turned into giant games of Whac-A-Mole, with protesters popping up from their seats and yelling before being pounced on by burly security guys in tight polo-shirts.
In this cycle the protesters shouts' have become more inventive, perhaps the most memorable being: 'Shove the ballroom up your fat ass.'
'It's always at my punchline...I've been hit three times at my punchline,' Trump complained in Florida as a woman was bundled out screaming and giving the crowd the bird.
Trump said they were all paid, getting $250 each. He added: 'It's a shame, they get arrested and ruin their lives....'
'They're losers sir! Shouted Mr Wall.'
'Is there anything like a Trump rally?' the President concluded.
Trump campaigned for Republican senator Ashley Moody in Florida
A protester yells out before being ejected by security from one of Trump's closing rallies
Outside Trump's rallies the merchandise sellers seemed pleased with business in this cycle, perhaps also a sign of voter enthusiasm and that all is not lost for Republicans.
In South Carolina a man selling 'Trump 2028' hats rapped: 'Don't be a Dumocrat, get Your Trump hat. You'll look good in that.' He was too busy closing sales to talk.
Nearby, Robert Thomas, 53, who has sold thousands of Trump hats and t-shirts at hundreds of Trump rallies over the last decade, said business had been 'pretty good' for a midterm cycle.
'People need something to get behind, something to believe in,' he said, adding that 'Jesus Is My Savior Trump Is My President' hats were selling particularly well.
However, Thomas expected business to tail off in 2028.
'Trump can't run again. The only way is to have Vance run and then he steps down. That's not going to happen,' he said.
'I'm not a Vance fan. He's just a little yabby dog that stands behind the big dog.'
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