FORT WORTH – 8 a.m. on Commerce Street in downtown Fort Worth is usually pretty barren, with the exception of a few cars here and there and the occasional pedestrian. On Friday morning this was not the case, as hundreds arrived early to ensure a close spot to see the spectacle that is Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The line of people consisted of people of all ages and ethnicities, people who are staunch Trump supporters and those who just

wanted to get a part of the Trump experience in person. Amongst the hundreds waiting in line for the event to start was a frenzy of media and security gearing up for what turned out to be a very important event for the entire presidential race.

At 9 a.m. the Fort Worth Convention Center exhibit hall doors opened to let the first people in and the crowd continued to grow from there. A playlist repeating approximately five songs (including some interesting choices, Elton John was certainly an unexpected selection), blared throughout the large standing only room as people anxiously awaited the event.

As to be expected there were certainly some interesting characters. Rally attendee Mike Chenault, who came dressed as Davy Crockett in honor of Alamo week, arrived early to show his support.

“He says that he is going to end Amendment 14, the U.S. Birthright Citizenship, and that’s what we support,” Chenault said.

Meanwhile, for some supporters, dressing up as Davy Crockett was not enough. Rally attendee Honey Adams dressed as Trump himself.

“I dressed like this for a Halloween costume party and I won a prize, and so when my friends and I decided to come here they decided I had to go as Trump again, so there was peer pressure,” said Adams, who is a fan of the man she dressed as. “I like that he is a businessman, I like that he knows what it takes to be an employer so he knows what it takes for businesses to open up and hire people.”

Adams was among many Trump supporters who appreciated the business side of their candidate.

“He hires more people, more women, more Latinos, he doesn’t care, if you’re a good person, he operates on merit, so if you’re a good person, he’ll hire you,” Vietnam veteran and Trump supporter Jeremy Taylor said.

At 11:15 a.m. the media was called into a separate meeting room adjacent to the exhibit hall for a press conference for unknown reasons. Trump was just coming off of a tough debate the previous night where rival Marco Rubio went full throttle after Trump, with Trump responding in the morning with a series of tweets including one that ended proclaiming Rubio a “loser”.

At 11:47 a.m. Trump entered the conference room with a very unexpected guest following close behind, New Jersey Governor

Chris Christie, who dropped out of the presidential race two weeks ago.

“I’ve been on that stage. And I’ve gotten to know all of the people on that stage, and there is no one better prepared to provide America with the strong leadership that it needs both at home and around the world than Donald Trump,” Christie said, as he announced his endorsement of Trump.

After fielding media questions regarding the major endorsement, which Trump proclaimed “really is a big one,” he took little time before changing the subject to his opponent Marco Rubio, who had just wrapped up a rally across the metroplex in Dallas. When asked if Rubio was trying to get inside Trump’s head, Trump curtly responded “that’s not happening.”

Christie aided Trump as they went after Rubio, stating that “desperate people do desperate things” and that Trump is “about the people in this country,” after suggesting that Rubio is indebted to the establishment.

The press conference went on for approximately 30 minutes, 15 minutes over its scheduled timeframe, as Trump fielded questions about his “complicated” tax plan and continued to go after Rubio, before finally exiting to get ready for the rally.

By the time the media re-entered the exhibit hall the crowd had nearly doubled in size, and it was getting very anxious. At approximately 12:30 p.m., Christie took the stage to the shock of the audience and was met with a mix of cheers and boos.

“I proudly endorse Donald Trump for president,” Christie declared to the delight of the 8,000 plus in attendance. After a few brief remarks from the New Jersey governor, Trump took the stage to an enormously loud Fort Worth crowd.

Trump’s speech was short and concise, lacking specifics but making up for it with bold promises and attacks against opponents.

“Look, it’s Rubio!” Trump yelled as he proceeded to fling water across the stage, imitating Rubio’s profuse sweating at the last

debate. His anger towards Rubio on this Friday afternoon was quite evident as he even took the time to compliment fellow opponent Ted Cruz. “I’ll at least say this about Ted Cruz, he is a smart guy, he really is.”

The genius of Trump was evident throughout the speech, as he evoked strong reactions from the crowd on issues such as guns (“the Second Amendment is under siege”), immigration (“we are going to have to stop certain people from entering until we figure out what’s going on, because we’ve got a major problem”), religious liberty (“we’re going to be saying Merry Christmas when I’m president”) and of course, the infamous wall (“we are going to have a real border, people will be coming in and out, but they will be coming in and out legally”), without having to get very specific on any of the issues.

Perhaps the most unifying message he had though was his anti-establishment and anti-media message.

“The media is amongst the most dishonest group of people,” Trump said after being interrupted by protesters. Trump even went to suggest that we look into “opening up those libel laws” so that he could sue The New York Times for writing a hit piece about him. He also targeted Rubio’s establishment appeal throughout the press conference and rally.

“He is against the Republican establishment. The Republican establishment is no better than the Democratic party,” Chenault said, perhaps perfectly summing up Trump’s broad appeal.

As the rally ended, Trump had one last message for the Fort Worth crowd – “let’s make America great again.” The predictable yet effective closing message had an even more predictable positive reaction from the crowd and, with that, the polarizing event came to an end.