Caesars viewing party turns into a celebration for The Donald

Most were coupled up, these visitors who waded into Caesars Palace sports book Tuesday night. Husbands and wives and traveling companions from international locales such as London and Guadalajara, Mexico, and from across the country — Chicago, Florida, small towns in Nebraska.

Collectively, they asked, “What is happening here?”

It was a philosophical question for many who watched the results of the 2016 presidential election, as the tide of state-by-state results showed Donald Trump recording a stunning upset over Hillary Clinton. But some asked what was happening in a more literal sense, struggling to follow the multiple news outlets’ reports in the same way an avid NFL bettor attempts to keep track of several screens at once.

“What I’m really kind of shocked by is the difference between the reporting,” said Vegas visitor David Condon, a self-employed businessman from London who was tracking results along the video screen. “You’ve got Fox, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and they are all calling different things. I’m a little bit confused by it all.”

The official results were broadcast soon enough for the crowd of about 250-300 at the Caesars Palace viewing party. That number only swelled as the announcement of Trump’s triumph became apparent.

As promised, the historic coverage dominated the space and pushed sporting events such as the Lakers-Mavericks NBA game and a Western Michigan-Kent State NCAA football tilt (huge second half by the Broncos, by the way) to the margins. Spread across the book’s 143-foot LED video wall were ongoing reports from CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC and Fox News. Audio was split between CNN and Fox News, with bursts of cheers emanating all evening from the many Trump supporters.

One observer seated near the front of the venue actually worked for the Trump campaign in Florida. Brett Schulman helped herd and organize VIPs for Trump rallies in Orlando, Florida, in what is known as the “I-4 Corridor,” including an event last week that drew 6,000 supporters. He also drove an 18,500-pound monster truck painted with Trump’s logo and an American flags for 5,000 miles during the Fireball Run charity event for missing children.

“These rallies were packed, wall-to-wall with people,” Schulman, who has been with the campaign for six months, said a couple of hours before Florida was called. “I’m actually extremely surprised to see Florida this close.”

Two buddies, brew-imbibers Nate Parde (pronounced, appropriately, as “party”) and Adam Vetter, won a trip to Vegas during a charity auction in Nebraska. It was the first trip to Vegas for both. Vetter is from Red Cloud, and Parde – wearing a T-shirt showing the U.S. flag and the message “American As (Expletive)” – said he was happy with the outcome.

“I back the Republican ticket,” Parde said. “I don’t necessarily back Trump, but he’s our guy. He’s got to bring in change.”

Near the back of the room was a couple from Mexico, sipping Coronas and alternately gazing at the video screens and into their smartphones. “I love to watch the reaction of the people,” said Jose Antonio Cerecer of Guadalajara, a civil engineer who works on infrastructure projects for the Mexican government. “We are reporting back to our friends and family in Mexico what is happening here.”

And the message? Cerecer’s wife, Mayumi, responded, “We have the message that a lot of people are going for Trump, and that the wall will probably be a reality now.” Her husband then showed a video making the rounds in his text exchanges, showing “Mexico’s New National Sport,” with men carrying ladders rushing to a tall wall and attempting to vault over.

“This is what the mood is,” he said. The couple stayed in the sports book for nearly five hours, just before the official announcement that Clinton had called Trump to concede.

As that moment was marked on CNN, Orlando tourists Brian Ludlow and Anna Marie Callahan erupted with applause and a high-five.

“We are very pleased,” said Ludlow, an executive with a claims-management company. “We need to protect our country. The number of people we have to support and deal with who are coming into this country illegally is overwhelming.”

Ludlow then turned to the crowd behind him, saying, “You know, it’s funny, but I thought there would be a lot more liberal people here. There are more conservatives, more Trump people, than I thought.”

At this party, and across the country, that was story of the 2016 presidential race.

John Katsilometes’ column runs Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday in the A section, and Fridays in Neon. He also hosts “Kats! On The Radio” Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM and appears Wednesdays at 11 a.m. with Dayna Roselli on KTNV Channel 13. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.