Tom Hoyle hadn’t yet been escorted out of President Donald Trump’s rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on Thursday before the internet went abuzz calling him a hero without a cape and a comedy legend. Then came the flood of rush orders to his print shop for Death metal band shirts and hats from people who want to be Hoyle for Halloween.

“It’s a little offputting that they would want to dress up as me,” the Charlotte, North Carolina, resident said, “but that’s all right.”

Hoyle, 57, became famous overnight over his response to a Fox News reporter’s live question about why he went to the rally for U.S. Senate candidate Darline Graham.

“Well,” Hoyle responded, “in the late '70s I was a little too young to get involved and, um, go to South America for the Jonestown massacre, but this is the closest I’ll ever get, so that’s why I’m here.”

“Wait,” the reporter asked, “the Jonestown massacre?”

“That’s right,” Hoyle said. “Nothing like seeing a cult right up front, man.”

At that point, the reporter realized what was happening. “All right, so maybe this is not a Trump supporter,” he told the camera while quickly walking away.

Google searches for “Jonestown” spiked 600% within hours. Anti-Trump and anti-Republican posts filled social media at the comparison of the political movement to the 1978 mass suicide event organized by cult leader Jim Jones in Guyana. More than 900 people, including children, died when Jones ordered them to drink poisoned Flavor Aid.

Hoyle didn’t drive to Rock Hill to get on television, he told The Herald. He said he just took the minute or so between learning he’d be interviewed and the cameras going live to think — something he said he’d like to see everyone do during election season.

He is a Republican turned independent

A handful of protesters were escorted out of Thursday’s event at what was otherwise a celebration of conservative policy. Hoyle said he isn’t anti-Republican, at least as he’s known the party. He voted for both Presidents Bush, but also for President Barack Obama. Hoyle and his father were strong supporters of Democrat Harvey Gantt, Charlotte’s first Black mayor.

“There’s good people in different parties,” Hoyle said, “and sometimes they’re not even in a party.”

Hoyle draws the line, though, at Trump.

“I was always known as a loudmouth and an opinionated guy,” Hoyle said. “That led me to become a bully to the bullies.”

Hoyle registered as a Republican in 1988 and didn’t change that affiliation until early last year, when he registered as an unaffiliated voter. He grew up in a predominately Black neighborhood just a couple of miles from his Charlotte screenprinting shop. Diversity is what makes any party great, he said.

So that’s what he intended to bring to his first MAGA rally.

‘Uninvited’ by Secret Service after Jonestown comment

Initially, Hoyle figured he’d wait until a few minutes into Trump’s remarks and yell something out loud. That’s what several others did before being walked out to chants of “USA” from the pro-Trump crowd. Then Hoyle was asked for a television interview. He quickly accepted.

“I’m so anti-Trump that I’ve got a million talking points I could spew,” Hoyle said.

After the now famous (or infamous) response on live television, depending on political leaning, the camera quickly cut away from Hoyle. Several men soon approached and began questioning him, Hoyle said. He spoke with them but went back and forth until one man identified himself as Secret Service, Hoyle said.

More concerned that the concession stand had already closed than whether he was internet famous, Hoyle agreed to leave after being told he was “uninvited.”

“I’m there to rabble rouse,” he said, “but I’m not there to hurt anybody or make anybody’s job super difficult.”

The viral moment

The hours since Hoyle left the rally have been a flurry of texts, emails, friend requests and business orders. His business website got tens of thousands of visits.

“Nuts,” Hoyle said. “Nuts, man. Of course my older sister was rolling her eyes.”

Hoyle heard from an old contractor buddy in Concord. He heard from a friend in Australia, and many others he hadn’t seen in years. Reconnecting with those folks is the best part of his interview fame so far. Old friends were amused, Hoyle said, but not surprised.

“’Good to see you’ve still lost your mind,’ things like that,” he said.

Common ground at South Carolina rally

Hoyle spoke out last fall when the U.S. Border Patrol increased immigration enforcement in Charlotte. He’s been critical of other Republican policies in recent years. Yet, in a way, he and the party he lampooned Thursday in Rock Hill had one belief in common.

Republicans up and down the ticket for the Nov. 3 election urged listeners to think about they type of future they want to see and get out to vote for it. Hoyle, who voted last Sunday, said he hopes his moment of fame might inspire people to learn about the candidates who will determine school bonds, soil and water issues, state taxes and federal laws.

He’s just not confident, after Thursday’s events, that people will.

“If the last 10 years didn’t inspire you to get out and vote, and you’re eligible, I don’t know what will,” Hoyle said.

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(c)2021 The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.