7 things I learned at Donald Trump’s New Hampshire HQ during his announcement.

There were six hours before New York businessman Donald Trump was scheduled to make a “major announcement” on a 2016 presidential run, and I still wasn’t sure how I, a reporter following the White House race, should cover his press conference.

After all, I had been down this absurd road before. Trump had teased runs for president for decades but never did it — essentially playing everyone, especially reporters. It would be easy to ignore Trump this week with former Florida governor Jeb Bush’s entrance into the presidential race and subsequent trip to New Hampshire.

But then I remembered what makes Trump’s presidential aspirations still interesting in 2016: Who is working for him. In New Hampshire and other states, people have devoted time to work for Trump’s first real campaign — an effort which might well have turned into just another media ruse.

I wanted to watch their reaction firsthand. If, after a quarter century of teasing a presidential run, he said he was running, they would feel vindicated. If he said he wasn’t running, they might feel duped. They’d also be unemployed.

But when I arrived at Trump’s presidential exploratory committee office in Manchester, N.H., I saw seven crazy things that stuck with me.

7. Trump has three assigned parking spots, and they want you to know about it.

Trump had three parking spots reserved like this

The office is located on the second floor of a small three-story office building right off the interstate. There are others companies in the building, and Americans for Prosperity (an organization funded by the Koch brothers) has its state headquarters on the bottom floor.

6 . Trump’s office has a 50-gallon fish bowl. A volunteer loaned it to the office because a staffer really loves fish.

5. They have not named the four yellow fish yet.

4. Everyone refers to Donald Trump as “Mr. Trump.” Even the volunteers.

3. There was no formal event planned for Trump’s announcement, but seven people spontaneously showed up to watch him. They all pretty much believed Trump would make a different decision about running for president this time.

2. Trump still has more staffers on the ground in New Hampshire than any other Republican campaign. His team plans to add its fifth staffer next month.

1. The craziest thing I learned at Donald Trump world HQ? He’s actually running for president.