This National Guard Crowd Likes What It Hears From Trump

They knew they probably should not have been laughing.

Hundreds of National Guard members sat chuckling in their camouflage uniforms as former President Donald J. Trump tore into Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who served for 24 years in the National Guard. When Mr. Trump mocked him as “Tampon Tim” (a reference to a law he signed requiring schools to provide menstrual products to all students who need them) nervous laughter rippled through the crowd, then quickly dissipated.

“This group is a little more low-key than the ones I’m used to speaking before,” Mr. Trump observed.

It was Monday afternoon, and he was speaking at the National Guard Association’s annual conference in Detroit. There were people from all 50 states and various U.S. territories there. Those in uniform said they were prohibited from discussing politics with a reporter, but the crowd also included former service members who had gone to work for private contractors. These more casually dressed members of the defense sector were free to say what the others could not.

“I think it’s phenomenal that he’s out and about, speaking with the military,” said Walt Nichols, a 58-year-old from San Antonio who said he served for 26 years in the Texas National Guard and did three tours in Iraq (he is now a sales engineer for TacMed Solutions, which manufactures high-tech manikins). “We need him back,” Mr. Nichols said of Mr. Trump.

“We just found out this week that he was going to be here — we had no idea,” said Cliff Byrd, 45, a former Marine from Portsmouth, N.H., who now works for Vidarr Inc., which specializes in night vision technology. “As you can see, a lot of people came out for it.”