I had anticipated Burlington, Vermont, being an interesting place to photograph my first Donald Trump rally. I wasn't wrong.
Next door to the theatre where the Republican frontrunner was to speak, a deli advertised its "The Donald" sandwich, made of bologna and white bread, of course. Another storefront's sign read: "Trump's A Chump - Feel The Bern!!"
All of this is no surprise - Senator Bernie Sanders' national campaign headquarters are just a block away and the democratic socialist competing against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party primaries was once a very popular mayor here. He still calls the quaint college town home.
It was also no surprise that hundreds of anti-Trump demonstrators had amassed across the street from the candidate's destination, the Flynn Centre for the Performing Arts.
I heard them chanting, "Deport Trump!" and, "Don't give in to racist fear, refugees are welcome here".
Meanwhile, those in line to see Trump countered with "Build a Wall!" and "USA! USA!"
Between the two factions, there were about 2,500 people gathered. Anticipating the inevitable protesters that plague Trump's campaign, his staff began to let people enter the 1,400-seat venue - but only after they passed a loyalty test in which they had to profess support for the candidate.
I'm no Trump supporter but I did have a press badge, so after a secret service pat down, I got to join the rest of the news cameras at the back.
Despite the fact that his campaign had done its best to engineer the crowd to be favourable to him, it had still been infiltrated.
Trump took it in his stride, though, like a badge of honour. "You know, it's sort of fun. Isn't this more exciting? You go to a Hillary thing, and it's like boring."
It was the hubris and showboating we had come to expect.
By now the candidate's supporters had morphed into informers, eager to be the first to spot the next imposter, shouting, "Out! Out!"
One woman was dragged out screaming: "I didn't do anything!" It reminded me of that scene in Pink Floyd's The Wall, when the rock star protagonist fantasises that he's a dictator and his concert is a neo-Nazi rally. Then his followers proceed to attack minorities.
During his 70-minute talk, Trump addressed his poll numbers, his recent Time magazine covers, and his now legendary promise to build a giant wall and make Mexico pay for it.
He accused Sanders of wanting to raise taxes to 90 percent. While he often vows to eliminate gun-free
zones if elected, he expanded on that pledge, stating: "I will get rid of gun-free zones on schools … on my first day."
"We are going to make America great again!"
Nate Gowdy is a photographer covering the US election campaign.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
