![]() Other politicians have more actively engaged the biker lifestyle. However, Trump is admittedly not a biker and in 2017 recounted how he turned down an offer to ride Harley-Davidson bikes brought to the White House by the manufacturer. He’s their man.”īack when he was still the host of The Apprentice, Donald Trump actually did sit on a bike when the bike makers from the Discovery channel show American Chopper made him a custom motorcycle ( predictably, it was gold and had his name on it). “Yet you go to a rally and these badass bikers are wearing T-shirts, they’ve got stickers, caps and decals. “I would almost guarantee you has never even sat on a motorcycle in his life,” he said. While Thompson sees reasons as to why bikers are attracted to Trump, he says the overall support still seems somewhat baffling. “He’s just in touch with the blue-collar people.” “I don’t think he’s one of the bikers,” said Gail, a 59-year-old Harley rider from Massachusetts who was browsing Trump apparel and asked that her surname not be used for fear of losing business in her blue home state. ![]() “When they see somebody doing good, bikers will come together and support that person.” “Personally, I think it’s because he’s for the commoner, he wants to make sure everybody gets a fair shake,” says Vince Kenyon, 53, who was wearing a leather Bikers for Trump vest while smoking a cigar. It is among these holdout rebels that Trump has found a wellspring of support. On pro-Trump T-shirts sold at bike week, the president is often portrayed as a biker and slogans are often divisive. And for a state so far north that it borders Canada, there are a surprising number of Confederate flags on clothing, a sign of the links some bikers have with white supremacy.īy and large, bikers are an aging demographic and at times, it can feel like spring break for baby boomers, a time and place where the generally accepted rules of society do not apply. In the most raucous bar, men pay women in lingerie to spank their bare bottoms with a paddle. You can smoke where you like for the most part. Tents sell chaps and vests with gun pockets. “I think they like his crudeness, his rudeness,” said Bill Thompson, a lifelong biker who is and professor of sociology at Texas A&M University Commerce, where he studies motorcycle culture.Īt rallies like Laconia, where tens of thousands gather along the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee every June, support for Trump is easy to find.įor most of the summer, Laconia’s Weirs Beach is a family friendly destination, a time capsule of nostalgia replete with arcades, a lakeside boardwalk and one of the nation’s few remaining drive-in movie theatres.īut for a week every June, Weirs beach is transformed as bikers descend here for the largest motorcycle rally in the north-east. In Trump, many bikers have found an unlikely idol: a non-biker real estate billionaire who nonetheless paints himself as a rebel, outsider and disruptor. It is about brash individualism, of saying and doing what you want, despite what others may think. Photograph: Josh WoodĪt its core, American biker subculture is rooted in the idea of rebellion – against society’s norms and against authority. Passersby look at a wall of Trump T-shirts for sale at Laconia, New Hampshire’s bike week.
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