The man President Donald Trump summoned from the crowd at his Saturday speech and rally is a Boynton Beach car salesman who keeps a life-size cardboard cutout of Trump at his house and regularly praises Trump on social media.
Gene Huber, 47, became an instant political everyman celebrity Saturday when Trump spotted him in the crowd and, saying he recognized him from a TV interview, asked him to come on stage and speak to the estimated 9,000 people in a hangar at Orlando-Melbourne International Airport.
After Secret Service agents were told by the president to let him on stage, Huber bounded up and hugged the president, who encouraged him to say a few words.
“Mr. President, thank you, sir. We the people, our movement, is the reason why our president of the United States is standing in front of us today. When President Trump during the election promised all these things that he was going to do for us, I knew he was going to do this for us,” Huber said.
“A star is born,” Trump said as Huber left the stage and the crowd chanted “U.S.A! U.S.A!”
Huber had done TV interviews earlier Saturday proclaiming his support for Trump after showing up at 4 a.m. to be first in line for the 5 p.m. rally.
He also did several interviews on cable news channels on Sunday morning.
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