When a Fox News reporter at a Trump rally asked a bearded baseball cap-wearing attendee why they’d come, they likely expected to hear from a die-hard MAGA supporter. After all, with Trump’s approval ratings in the toilet, those still showing up to his rallies must be utterly committed to him.
The incident came at the Trump rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where Fox’s correspondent Lucas Tomlinson was on the hunt for soundbites. He approached 57-year-old Tom Hoyle, asking, “Why are you here this morning?”
Without missing a beat, Hoyle explained: “Well, in the late 70s, I was a little too young to go to South America for the Jonestown Massacre. But this is as close as I’ll ever get, so that’s why I’m here. There’s nothing like seeing a cult right up front.” Tomlinson smiled and awkwardly said, “Okay, maybe this is not a Trump supporter…”
The worst possible person to interview
The clip instantly went viral, and Hoyle has now been interviewed by The Handbasket about his comments. He said he was annoyed at being called about the event on his business phone, which pushed him to actually turn up: “As much as I despise Donald Trump and his ilk and MAGA and all of that – I despise them. I hate them with every bit of my DNA. That pushed me over the edge and I said, here’s my opportunity. Let’s go do something goofy.”
Hoyle added that he was once a registered Republican, but is now completely disillusioned with the party: “I was a registered Republican for decades, but my father always told us we should never pull party ticket. We should vote for every qualified Democrat or Independent that we could. We always voted for people of different parties, but just about a year and a half ago, I re-registered as an Independent. I don’t want the stain of what used to be the Republican Party on me anymore. There is no Republican Party. It’s just MAGA, and they’re dead.”
He also underlined that he specifically hates Donald Trump: “I have hated Donald Trump since 1989, as a young man, sophomore in college. What he did with the Central Park Five [now called the Exonerated Five.] I already knew I didn’t like him because of watching him on David Letterman, who I was a huge fan of growing up. I already knew I didn’t like him, but when the Central Park Five stuff happened, I decided then, “you’re dead to me,” and hopefully to everybody else.”
Hoyle then added that, soon after his interview, he was ejected from the event by a man who identified himself as Secret Service. But is he worried about his sudden viral fame? Apparently not: “We have promoted printing shirts for George Floyd protests in his name years ago. We print for the No Kings rallies. We print for We Rock Charlotte, which is an LGBTQ-driven free music organization that gives free lessons to single mothers and kids. We don’t care if you want to come over here and try to intimidate us.”
Published: Oct 30, 2026 02:00 pm