The event was organized by the pro-Trump citizen grassroots movement, MAGA3X, to “celebrate and honor the passionate citizens who worked social media, knocked on doors, and endured harassment to support” Donald Trump in 2016.

Had so much infighting not broken out amongst the event’s organizers and headliners, the Deploraball might’ve come and gone without causing so much as a ripple in the news stream. Instead, the ensuing drama created waves so large that the event captured the attention of the mainstream media, who (quite strategically) leapt at the chance to report on the fact that the pro-Trump social media network had descended into civil war and was teetering on the verge of collapse. Fortunately, such a collapse did not transpire. Perhaps this was because between the origin of the infighting and the Deploraball, the Left provided us with plenty of causes to unite over. One such cause was when Project Veritas, an investigative non-profit organization founded by journalist James O’Keefe, exposed a group of left-wing activists from the “D.C. Anti-Fascist Coalition,” who were allegedly planning to crash the Deploraball with butyric acid bombs (commonly known as “stink bombs”), as well as to disrupt the parade at the Presidential Inauguration.

The Deploraball did, in fact, take place on the evening of January 19th at the National Press Club. The Leftist protest, which snaked all the way down the block near the main entrance, was stitched together by a barrage of low-energy chants—the lowest-energy chant of them all being “fascist bow ties.” Surprisingly enough, though, in a rare bout of self-awareness, the protestors seemed to catch to the uselessness of their rhetoric and soon resorted to hurling batteries. Batteries aren’t the most cost-effective ammunition, but then most George Soros-funded protests . . . ahem, I mean, most Leftist protests don’t seem to lack funding.

Like the low-energy chanting, the battery hurling was also short-lived. I assume that the protestors must have come to terms with the fruitlessness of it all, for their dissention did not last through the four-hour event. By the time the Deploraball’s final curtain closed, the street outside the National Press Club was as vacant as a Hillary Clinton rally, without even the echos of triggered screeching to remind us that “The Resistance” had once attempted to take a stand there.

In contrast to the doom and gloom that dominated the exterior of the event, the interior was rife with celebratory music, victory speeches and a nearly tangible excitement for President Donald Trump’s Inauguration the following morning. As promised, the event was also relatively star-studded. Special appearances by some of the most influential Trump supporters were made, including Sheriff Joe Clarke, Peter Thiel, Michael Flynn Jr. and James O’Keefe. Rumor had it that even Ricky Vaughn himself was anonymously in attendance . . .

Arguably though, the desire to meet stars was not the driving force behind the sizable turnout. On the contrary, from what I observed, the vast majority of Deploraball attendees were unknowns who were responsible for playing a small yet positive role on social media, either publicly or anonymously, during the election cycle, and who had purchased tickets to the event for the purpose of meeting one other. These men and women viewed the Deploraball as a rare opportunity to put faces to the allies with whom they had spent so many months in the virtual trenches, shit-posting and trolling as part of a seemingly impossible campaign to meme a man into the White House.

With that said, one can understand why the Deploraball was not an event to be missed. Despite the drama, the infighting, the negative press and the incessant threats of disruption, sabotage and violence, the only noteworthy damper on the evening was the fact that so many familiar faces were missing—fellow MAGA soldiers, both prominent and lesser known, who had practically bled themselves dry for the movement, but who, through one reason or another, were unable to attend.

As a whole, the Deploraball was an ideal primer for the Presidential Inauguration, which felt just as much like an end as it did a beginning. President Donald Trump’s inaugural address symbolized the end of the Left’s uncontested reign of power and the beginning of the Right’s ability to fight effectively—to play our cards in a way that would result in the revitalization of our ability to influence politics, society and culture. While we are still in the fledgling stage of our governance, if the results of the Presidential Election have assured us of one thing, it’s that when united, we cannot lose.

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