WILDWOOD, N.J. Hours after his legal defense team delivered arguments in the impeachment trial, and just as news emerged that Senate Republicans dont yet have the votes to block likely damning testimony from former White House adviser John Bolton, President Donald Trump stepped on stage at the Wildwoods Convention Center to an adoring crowd of thousands.

He seemed happy to be in friendly territory.

Although New Jersey is a blue state, 58% of voters here in Cape May County voted for the president in 2016. And the House member representing this southern tip of the state, Jeff Van Drew, quit the Democratic Party for the GOP in December and, citing his disapproval of impeachment, pledged his undying support for Trump.

The president rewarded Van Drews defection at the rally, inviting him on stage.

Theyre trying to steal that election, Trump said of Democrats impeachment, and Jeff had the guts to defy the left-wing fanatics in his own party and to stand tall in defense of our Constitution, our freedom and democracy itself!

The crowd cheered.

An army of people in red Make America Great Again hats invaded Wildwood on Tuesday, turning whats usually a ghost town this time of year into the frontline albeit for a few hours of the presidents fight to discredit the historic effort to remove him from office.

Vendors hawking MAGA merchandise set up stands in front of shuttered ice cream shops, vacant hotels and empty mini-golf courses. They took over part of Wildwoods famed boardwalk, too, selling QAnon pins and Make Liberals Cry Again T-shirts, as men in bulldozers down on the desolate beach pushed around mounds of sand to beat back erosion.

Wildwood officials even had to turn the traffic lights back on. With so little traffic during the winter, the town usually keeps the lights blinking yellow. But on Tuesday, hordes of red hats in their cars were made to stop at red lights as they searched the tiny barrier island for parking.