On a soggy day, in a greasy spoon diner in Keene, New Hampshire, the talk was politics and Wednesday night's outsized visitor: Donald Trump.
This is The Donald’s 14th visit to the granite state and his first since he failed to condemn an anti-Muslim questioner at a town hall on September 17th.
It is also the first time the Republican will be facing voters since releasing his tax plan - one that diners at Lindy’s, which bills itself as “The Place where Politicians Meet the People” - do not find impressive.
“I very much doubt that he’s a champion of the middle class,” Lee Hallgring told NBC News over a plate of eggs, “I can’t take him seriously on the issues.”
But Trump is trying to get serious. Now armed with specifics, the Republican frontrunner rallied voters at Keene High School Wednesday night. Touting his tax plan and telling voters it is “really something we are proud of. It’s going to help you. It’s going to put people back to work.”
He also touted a big name endorsement from the billionaire Apple investor Carl Icahn.
“Carl Icahn. He came out yesterday and said Trump is the only one that knows what hes talking about,” trump told the room and bragging, “I’ll say carl you handle china and I’Il just walk away. We’ll come out great.”
Speaking to NBC News by phone, Icahn said he wouldn’t serve in a Trump cabinet or accept an ambassadorship but would be happy to be an adviser. He bemoaned the dysfunction in Washington and compared Trump to Teddy Roosevelt, saying he is a “kind of guy who doesn’t give a damn.
“Its worst than its every been and we don’t do a damn thing about it” Icahn said about Congress, “We legislate inequality, not equality. The legislature is holding us back, because they’re beholden to those who give them donations and I think this is where Donald will not be beholden.”
Economists across the political spectrum say the tax plan will potentially benefit the wealthy even more than the poor. The conservative Tax Foundation claims it will add 10.2 million to the deficit over a decade.
Trump has called that assessment, “wildly off the mark."
Along with the tax plan, the Trump campaign is rolling out a softer side of Trump – the man behind the bellow and boom.
In an interview with People magazine Trump said the campaign is “a little scary for [his 10-year-old son] Barron. He thinks he is going to be taken away from friends, but I tell him if this happens, Daddy will help people, and can help children like him, and that makes him happy.”
But Lee Hallgring isn’t convinced. Still, she told NBC News she wanted to see him in person for herself.
“I want to give him a fair chance to try and convert me,” she said, “but I don’t expect to be converted."
After his hour long speech, Hallgring told NBC News "I somehow expected more."
