EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The rain was unforgiving here on Feb. 22, 2023, the day former President Donald Trump came to this small Columbiana County village. Despite the weather and concerns about what kind of chemical was lurking in the pools of mud they were walking in, hundreds lined up along Main Street to watch Trump's motorcade siren its way into town.
They all waited along the designated route in anticipation of Trump, just under a month after a 38-car Norfolk Southern train dumped poisonous residue into the air.
If you had lived within a mile from here, you had been evacuated two days after the derailment.
If you had visited here for weeks, you understood that the people here wanted to know those in power would help. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, just weeks post swearing-in, was here multiple times. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, also came. However, the person with the most power, President Joe Biden, had not come, nor would he ever.
"[Trump's] visit filled the leadership vacuum left behind by Joe Biden's indifference toward this disaster," Vance said. "It sent a clear message to the rest of the country that these people are our fellow Americans and we can't leave them behind."
The former president did what so many other residents in this area did that dreary day: rolled up his pants and walked through the village.
Trump's arrival happened at a low point politically. Some of his faithful supporters still felt the sting of the midterm losses, in particular in the Senate with the candidates he supported in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona, with many blaming him for picking flawed people.
Polling at the time showed him in a close possible race with Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who had not yet announced he was running.
While the shift toward Trump in the polls would not happen for at least a month after his visit here, I wrote down in my rain-smudged reporter's notebook that day that if he is able to resurrect the magic of 2016, understanding the forgotten man and woman and the dignity of work, it started here, the day he showed up when Biden refused.
East Palestine residents Tammy and Rick Tsai watched Trump roll in. Before Feb. 3, the actress and her husband were talking about an early retirement.
One year later, their placid life has changed. He has become a man on a mission to document what has happened here. He and Tammy supplied water to his community and raised tens of thousands of dollars for workers when the local Family Dollar store abruptly closed. The once-apolitical chiropractor is now running for a seat in the House.
Tammy Tsai said she followed along on foot as Trump visited here that day. "He was at the Roadhouse first, then he went to Brittain Motors. ... I could really observe people's reactions at both, then outside of McDonald's."
"You are not forgotten," Trump said at the press conference, during which he stood with cases of bottled "Trump" water he brought for the residents of this quaint village. "In too many cases, your goodness and perseverance were met with indifference and betrayal."
Tammy Tsai said Trump had the right instincts to show up here.
"In a lot of ways, we are the symbol or poster child of the kind of place Washington forgets. President Biden underscored that by not coming then or now or ever," she said.
She emphasized it was massively important for Trump to show up. "Trump showing up for us showed he cared," she said. "There will always be people who said it was a stunt. Well, he didn't have to do it, but he did. That is more than I can say for President Biden."
Newsweek searched through the 380 messages released from the White House press pool from the date of the crash to the day Trump arrived here, revealing no direct statements from Biden on East Palestine. Biden finally did, however, tweet about it the day before Trump arrived.
By Feb. 27, when pressed, Biden said he had no plans to show up.
"Showing up matters," Marcy Ford explained from her home in nearby Darlington, Pennsylvania.
Ford, who owns a farm in East Palestine, got very close to Trump that day.
"Before him, I had been a Democrat," she said. "I switched parties because of the way he spoke directly to the concerns. I have voted for him both times since then."
Paul Sracic, a political science professor at Youngstown State University, explained that Trump's rehabilitation within the Republican ranks is multifaceted. "It is significantly impacted by perceptions that he's being unfairly treated by the judicial system, and he's being targeted ... but that's not the whole story," he said.
Sracic said Trump's instinct to show up here last year is classic Trump 2016, when he was at his best.
"This is now the heart of Trump country," Sracic said. "And to remind people he was physically there for them at a time when they were hurt and worried is often the thing that he likes to do.
"It was an important moment in his rehabilitation," Sracic added in the autopsy of what candidates got wrong. "We often forget to talk about what Trump got right."
The national press have missed reporting on moments Trump was selectively engaged in things voters care about.
In the end, his legal troubles may matter a lot, but the error made in reporting on this race is the sin of omission. You cannot continue to make the mistake of ignoring the stuff he does that's not pertaining to him but is pertaining to the voters.
Salena Zito has held a long, successful career as a national political reporter. She worked for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for 11 years, and has interviewed every U.S. president and vice president since 1992, as well as other top D.C. leaders. She joined the New York Post in September 2016, and acts as a CNN political analyst, and also as a reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. Read Salena Zito's Reports — More Here.