Trump's faithful sleep on the beach before his Wildwood rally as New Jersey town's boardwalk stores are decked out in MAGA merchandise

It's 7:30 p.m. Friday and an array of pizza shops, soft serve places and arcades are open for business - despite it still being off-season - on the Wildwood boardwalk. 

But about 100 or so of former President Donald Trump's MAGA faithful are foregoing the funnel cakes and cheeky beach stores to instead camp out below on the sand so they can be the first to enter the presumptive Republican nominee's Jersey Shore rally. 

Trump isn't expected to take the stage until 5 p.m., but 63-year-old Mark Bellini of Brick, New Jersey - holding onto the coveted 12th place in line - has been waiting since 5 p.m. Thursday. 

'It was cold, it was raining. Yeah, it was wet. I used a plastic bag over my head in order to keep my spot,' the private investigator told DailyMail.com about his first night camping on this beach as he was about to do it for a second time in a row. 

Jodi Derstine, a 62-year-old nurse from Morristown, New Jersey said she arrived at 5 a.m. Friday and had a motel, but planned to camp out too: 'We're here for the duration.'

She was sporting the latest in MAGA merch: a hat that resembled an electronic billboard that flashed the phrase 'Trump 2024' - a new acquisition, she said, from the boardwalk stores. 

Trump supporters Mark Bellini (left) and Jodi Derstine (right) pose for a picture in front of their makeshift campsite on the beach in Wildwood, New Jersey. Bellini arrive Thursday at 5 p.m. to get in line while Derstine got to the Jersey Shore at 5 a.m. Friday 

About 100 or so Trump supporters could be seen camping out on the beach ahead of Saturday's Wildwood, New Jersey rally Friday evening. They were only allowed to bring camp chairs and braved temperatures in the low 50s and windy and wet conditions 

Shops all along the boardwalk were hawking Trump swag but with a shore store twist - bootie shorts, lewd t-shirts and even some gold slippers, meant to resemble the sneakers the ex-president debuted at Sneaker Con in February. 

While Bellini said he's squatted overnight before - at the January 2020 rally in Wildwood when it dipped down to 33 degrees - Derstine is a first-timer. 

She couldn't name a single person - other than Trump - she would do this for.

'Nope, never, nope,' she said with a laugh.

Only chairs, not tents, are allowed in the line and there are organized food and bathroom breaks, at the moment being organized by a person in an Uncle Sam get-up.

But with the sun starting to set, temperatures already hovered around 50 degrees, but thanks to the ocean and its strong breeze, it felt much colder. 

'For the children, for the children, it's not for me, it's not for me at all,' Derstine explained when asked why she would endure this. 'Because he's gonna save America. He is my hope.' 

MERCHANDISING! The store shores were ready for former President Donald Trump's Wildwood, New Jersey rally. This particular shop sold Trump-branded booty shorts and eyebrow-raising t-shirts alongside more typical naughty beachwear

At one of the boardwalk arcades gold shoes were hung with the sign 'MAGA gold slippers.' They were meant to resemble the $400 sneakers that former President Donald Trump debuted at Sneaker Con in February 

Derstine said she was particularly offended by the teaching of Critical Race Theory and gender identity in schools, adding that she believed God should be taught in the classroom.

A former Atlantic City ER nurse, Derstine said she's been a Trump fan for a long time, seeing him around his casino hotels when he owned them and seeing him first speak around the year 2000.

'I fell in love with him at the limo convention,' she gushed. 'I was like this dude is so for America. Loves us.' 

While she admitted that, 'Atlantic City sucks right now,' she pushed back on Democratic talking points that Trump failed the coastal gambling town.

'There's a Democratic mayor, it was a Democratic mayor, it was not Trump. Not at all Trump,' she said. 'Trump is completely for America and for business. They say, "He went bankrupt," So what? You can. That's the beauty of America. You can go bankrupt and come back.' 

She also wasn't buying the court cases against him. 

'That Stormy Daniels is a nut job,' Derstine said. 

53-year-old Michael O'Neil told DailyMail.com he was a homeless veteran who lost his job after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19. 'I've been struggling ever since to make ends meet,' he said from the Wildwood beachfront campout ahead of Trump's Saturday rally 

Another Trump supporter, Michael O'Neil, 53, who planned to stay beachfront for the night, said he was a homeless veteran and couldn't find work after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19. 

'After the 2020 election I was working for the Department of the Army in Hawaii and the vaccine mandate came down for federal workers,' he explained. 'With the mandate I lost my job because I wouldn't take the shot.' 

'I've been struggling ever since to make ends meet,' O'Neil added. 

Despite Trump launching Operation Warp Speed during his administration - the pursuit of quickly developing COVID-19 vaccines - the veteran held President Joe Biden wholly responsible for his woes.

'No because with him at least, you know, he wasn't gonna make it mandatory,' he said of Trump. 'So you had free will whether or not you wanted to take it. With Biden there was no free will. You either take it or you walk, you know?'

'So a lot of people's lives have been ruined because of this administration,' he said.

O'Neil said the beach camping wasn't to be at the front of the rally but 'to be part of this whole thing' and 'meet other people and hear their stories.' 

'I'm sure some people have worse stories than I do. It's been really tough,' O'Neil said. 

Trump supporter Edward X. Young - who's appeared in a number of low-budget horror and sci-fi movies - said President Joe Biden has the 'intelligence of a sack of carrots' and believed New Jersey was winnable for Trump in 2024

His buddy, 64-year-old Edward X. Young, who was sporting a distinct bright green MAGA hat, said he was in fact there to get a front row seat. 

'Well I'm going to sleep on the beach because I want to be up close,' Young told DailyMail.com. 

Young works for a debt consolidation company and acts in low-budget horror and sci-fi movies. 

He also was an even harsher critic of the Biden administration. 

'Let's face it, Barack Obama is president. Joe Biden is just a sock puppet. He's got the intelligence of a sack of carrots,' Young said. 

Young called the 88 felony charges against the former president an 'outright, persecution, crucifixion of Donald Trump' and likened the MAGA base coalescing around him to be akin to the American response to the attack on Pearl Harbor. 

'When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the admirals, the generals, they were celebrating. And Yamamoto warned them he said, "I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve,"' Young quoted. 'That's what the Democrats have done.' 

Some of the t-shirt designs were specifically for former President Donald Trump's Saturday rally in Wildwood, New Jersey - a state that by conventional wisdom isn't in play after the ex-president only won 41 percent of the vote in both 2016 and 2020

A sign alerted beachgoers of Saturday's 2024 Trump rally on the Wildwood boardwalk Friday night. While New Jersey isn't considered a traditional swing state coverage of the rally will extend into the all-important Philadelphia media market 

He believed Trump had a chance to flip New Jersey - after only winning 41 percent of the vote in the state in both 2016 and 2020. 

The Garden State hasn't voted for a Republican for president since President George H.W. Bush in 1988, though has voted for a number of GOP governors. 

'There is an excellent chance that New Jersey will switch back to red - it's time,' Young predicted. 

And while Trump's move to hold a Jersey Shore rally raised eyebrows with the Biden campaign - with communications director Michael Tyler cattily saying that on 'Planet Earth' his campaign was focusing on a path to 270 electoral votes - the Republican is also reaching the all-important Philadelphia media market. 

But Trump's beachfront campers were convinced the move was to turn New Jersey red. 

'Yeah, absolutely,' said Bellini, the private investigator. 'They hid the fact that a lot of people are tired of this administration, the Biden administration.' 

Young, the part-time actor, agreed. 

'I think Trump will win Jersey in 2024,' he said, adding, 'If it's a fair election.'