In Florida, thousands of senior citizens who love President Trump packed a school gymnasium to meet him, while hundreds protested nearby.
Large crowds gather early as Florida’s The Villages prepares to welcome Trump
As The Villages prepares to welcome President Trump on May 1, 2026, large crowds gather early.
THE VILLAGE, Fla. – They skipped pickleball games, softball practice and their regular Friday card games, busted out MAGA hats and “No Kings” signs, hopped in golf carts and gathered in one of America’s largest senior communities to make their voices heard.
President Donald Trump was in town, and Central Florida’s retirement mecca, The Villages, was buzzing.
Thousands of seniors who love President Trump waited hours to show their gratitude and cheered on the president as he pushed for tax cuts and other policies for older Americans at raucous rallies that packed school gymnasiums. Nearby, a small but energetic crowd of several hundred villagers lined up at a roundabout with protest signs and colorfully decorated golf carts.
Mr. Trump and his party are in a politically dangerous moment, with polls showing a majority of voters dissatisfied with the economy and his handling of the Iran war. The president’s visit to The Villages was an opportunity to rally his base in a county where Republicans outnumber Democrats 3-1 and speak to a key demographic of older voters who will play a key role in the upcoming midterm elections.
“I like everything about him,” said Jackie Williams, a 74-year-old retiree from New Jersey who voted for Trump three times and would “hopefully” vote again.
Williams, along with other villagers, waited in line for hours to see President Trump take the stage in front of a “Make Your Golden Age Your Golden Age” sign. President Trump told the audience that tax cuts for seniors are making refund checks bloated.
“That could mean a lot of things, like more money to visit your grandchildren, more budget for trips to places you want to go, or more dinners with your family,” President Trump said.
President Trump noted that 401,000 people’s retirement accounts have bulged due to rising stock prices, Medicare changes such as coverage of weight loss drugs, and other measures targeting prescription drug costs.
At a news conference he attended, the president cited recent shootings and concerns about public safety, saying he felt safe in The Villages.
“They want me to be in a safe place. I said, ‘What’s safer than The Villages?'” Trump told an audience of communities that strongly supported him in the last election.
But even in The Village, there were signs of a growing backlash over President Trump’s aggressive policies in his second term and bipartisan concerns about the rising cost of living that has plagued the president and could be a major issue in the upcoming election.
Skip Pickleball
The Village stretches across inland Florida north of Orlando and attracts retirees from all over the United States.
One display in the welcome center on Friday listed new arrivals from 30 different states and Canada, many drawn to the carefully landscaped cityscape and expansive facilities, endless pickleball courts, golf courses, pools and other adult playgrounds. Golf carts are the primary mode of transportation for many people.
Republican candidates have long been drawn to the community as a place to concentrate Republican voters.
Paul Hocker is not one of them. He had been scheduled to attend softball practice on Friday, but since Trump won a second term, he has been forced to publicly show his disapproval of the president.
Mr. Hocker, 76, worked for an insurance company in Atlanta before retiring 12 years ago and moving to The Villages. Hocker, an independent, said he had never participated in protests until recently, when he started showing up at the “No Kings” demonstrations against President Trump.
“What he did became intolerable,” said Hocker, a Navy veteran who wore a “Grumpy Old Veteran” hat while sitting in a camp chair in front of a parked golf cart with dozens of others at a demonstration organized by the Florida Democratic Party and the Villages Democratic Club.
Hocker rejected President Trump’s tax cuts for seniors, saying the president’s large tax bill passed last year primarily benefited the wealthiest individuals.
Nearby, Dana Dandino held a sign attacking Trump over high food prices. She pointed out that the prices of gasoline and other necessities are rising.
“People won’t be able to put food on the table,” said Dandino, 71, a former teacher from New Jersey. “It’s already happening.”
Dandino said many villagers are lucky. They often have pensions, Medicare, and other cushions against rising costs. Many people drive electric golf carts and are not as concerned about gas prices.
But she said the seniors she speaks to are concerned about the economy, how debt will affect their grandchildren, and about President Trump’s policies in general. Dandino skipped Friday’s pickleball game because she was worried that “democracy would be lost” and wanted to speak out against President Trump.
Bill Knudson, president of the Village Democratic Club, said membership has increased by 20% to about 1,700 people during President Trump’s second term. He said about 7,000 people attended the recent “No Kings” anti-Trump protest in The Villages.
“Every time Mr. Trump does something, big names show up,” he said, taking a break from handing out placards. Someone nearby was holding a large peace sign, and another was holding an “86 47” sign. The message was written in seashells and was shared in a social media post by former FBI Director James Comey, who is now facing an indictment.
Cars honked their horns in support and occasionally jeered as they drove by. A man leans out of a window and asks, “Do you want to be an assassin?” an apparent reference to the mass shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner attended by President Trump.
packed gymnasium
The line to attend Mr. Trump’s rally at The Villages Charter School stretched hundreds of yards from the school’s parking lot to the sidewalk.
Marie Hertz, 79, waited more than five hours before attending the rally with a friend. Hertz, a former kindergarten teacher from New York who bought a home in The Villages in 2004, said it was well worth the wait to attend the rally.
She praised President Trump for everything from his immigration policies to “protecting us from Iran.”
“They would have had a bomb,” she said of Iran, sitting in the bleachers at her high school, wearing a bejeweled American flag hat and waiting for President Trump to speak. “I believe so. They are always telling America death.”
Hertz said “everyone is feeling the pinch” due to cost of living issues, but “we hope it’s temporary.”
“I understand how people who are affected feel, but my parents were affected during World War II,” said Hertz, who missed a card game he regularly attended because of the rally. “They went without it so we could too.”
There are “good reasons” for gas prices to rise, she said of the war.
President Trump assured a crowd in the village that oil prices would “crash” once the war ended, but he has struggled to achieve that as negotiations with Iran appear to have stalled. He expected oil prices to rise and stock prices to fall after the Iran attack, suggesting the economic impact of the conflict could have been even worse.
“I’m surprised. I thought the stock market was going to fall 25%. I thought oil prices were going to be much higher than they are now,” Trump said, adding, “We had to get this done.”
Hertz and others at the rally downplayed polls showing President Trump’s approval ratings plummeting. Ed Killory, 65, said in line for the rally that the issue of affordability was “overblown.”
“The war will be over in four to eight weeks, people will forget about it, gas prices will go down to $2 a gallon, and we’ll be fine for the midterm elections,” said Killorey, who runs an insurance company in The Villages and has a Trump flag hanging at his home.
But even among the crowd of enthusiastic Trump supporters, there were tensions over Iran and prices. Williams, a New Jersey retiree, said he likes “everything” about President Trump, but acknowledged that the Iran war and its costs are weighing on people.
“It could be better,” Williams said of the cost of living. “And if we can get out of this war…the cost of gasoline will go down. That’s very important because when gas goes up, everything goes up. He has to do it quickly because you’re making a lot of people unhappy, and I’m unhappy with that too.”
For other villagers, the president’s visit did not disrupt their daily lives. Ken Frazier, 66, who is retired and is a fan of President Trump, decided to go to the pickleball courts on Friday instead. On the court, “you forget everything that’s going on in the world,” he said, taking a coffee break between games.
Elderly people important for “MAGA base”‘
President Trump’s Florida rally was the latest in a series of trips aimed at pitching his policies for a second term and countering increasingly negative perceptions of his administration ahead of the midterm elections.
The backlash against President Trump’s policies spurred a series of Democratic victories and overperformance in 2025 and 2026.
President Trump’s approval rating has fallen to its lowest level during his second term in multiple recent surveys. In a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, a majority of voters rate the president poorly on his handling of the economy, inflation and Iran, which has driven up gas prices and raised concerns about the cost of living.
In a Reuters/Ipsos poll, 41% of Republicans said they disapproved of President Trump’s handling of the cost of living.
But senior voters are still likely to approve of Trump’s performance.
Trump is gaining support among young voters and voters of color. A CNN poll last month found that President Trump’s overall approval rating was down 10 points from a year ago, but it was down 19 points among voters ages 18 to 34 and 11 points among voters of color. Among voters 65 and older, Trump’s approval rating fell by 6 points.
But a CNN analysis that averaged the news organization’s recent polls, as well as those from CBS and Fox News, found that Trump’s approval rating among senior voters has barely budged from a year ago.
Turnout among older voters is significantly higher than among younger voters, and Mr. Trump’s continued strength with older voters could be a lifeline for his party as it struggles in the midterm elections.
“Older adults have been and continue to be a large part of the MAGA demographic of Trump’s supporters,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, noting that Trump still has “solid support” among this demographic and that keeping them motivated for the next election could be important.
Jewett said issues such as affordability, health care, retirement benefits and crime tend to be the biggest concerns for seniors.
President Trump has been pushing policies aimed at cutting costs for seniors, but efforts to sell his economic policies have missed the mark as the Iran war distracts him from key projects such as a planned White House ballroom. And the price of gas is a reminder of the affordability issue that still weighs on many older Americans, Jewett said.
“Many seniors are still worried about the current economy and worried about the future,” he said.
