WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Donald Trump supporters gathered in a cavernous room at the West Palm Beach Convention Center to watch the election results be revealed Tuesday evening.

Classic rock blared through the speakers. Dozens of people gathered in front of a stage adorned with American flags. Others wearing MAGA hats gathered around tables and sipped from plastic cups at open bars. Dozens of news cameras rushed to gain space on a riser in the center of the room. The big screens were tuned to Fox News and CNN.

The crowd cheered when the first results were displayed on the screen, showing Trump winning several states he was expected to win.

National results

See national results update in real time

Polls show a tight race between the former Republican president and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris nationally and in the seven battleground states that will decide the election.

It was unclear when Trump would travel the few miles from Mar-a-Lago to the convention to address the crowd, but if he were to make an appearance, it would be late in the evening. Trump reportedly hosted several dinners with close friends, donors and club members, including Elon Musk, at his Palm Beach resort.

Trump and his wife, Melania, voted earlier Tuesday at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach.

“I feel very confident,” he told reporters after casting his vote. “It looks like the Republicans have come in strong, so we’ll see how that goes.”

At the start of the evening, Rudy Giuliani crossed the convention hall surrounded by several journalists asking him questions about electoral fraud and the Philadelphia prosecutor whom he described as a “democrat hack”. A former New York mayor and longtime Trump ally, Giuliani was convicted of defamation for falsely accusing two Georgia election workers of 2020 election fraud.

“They took away my profession because I was defending the interests of my client,” he said.

And if Harris wins, “I don’t know what will happen to America,” Giuliani said before reaching the exit. “This worries me greatly.”

What Trump supporters are saying

Charles Hibbs, of White River, South Dakota, has attended 49 Trump rallies across the country since 2020, including more than two dozen as a volunteer. He wore a red MAGA hat that a Trump aide told him the former president wanted to give him after a campaign event. He also has a signed photo of himself standing behind Trump at a rally that the campaign mailed to him. Trump wrote “I love you” above his signature.

“What stands out to me is a man who defends the values ​​and principles of our founding fathers, the Judeo-Christian principles. He believes in our Constitution. He believes in our Declaration of Independence. He believes in working for the people, not the politicians. He believes in peace through strength,” he said.

Hibbs, 69, said he doesn’t think so but knows Tuesday will be a good night because there was no “scandal,” which is how he refers to the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19, claiming it was concocted to derail Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.

“I expect to see a lot of joy, a lot of support, positive, no matter what,” he said. “You will not see anger. You’re going to be frustrated if it’s cheating.

Earlier in the day, Ellie Hendricks, a 19-year-old student at Palm Beach Atlantic University, browsed Trump merchandise near the convention center in an effort to buy a red Trump-Vance hat to go with her new T- shirt depicting the former president urging his supporters to fight after the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“This is my first election. I’m really excited,” she said.

Hendricks said she voted for Trump because she wanted to be able to buy a house in the next four years and she liked the way he handled “everything” when he was president.

“I think he handled COVID very well. If anyone else was president, I don’t think it would be the same,” said Hendricks, who was a sophomore in high school at the time.

Hendricks and his friends hope to get into the convention center, but otherwise they will wait for the election results outside. She said she hoped nothing bad would happen, noting there might be protesters.

“I hope everyone is having a peaceful time,” she said.