About 35 people were arrested Friday outside Trump’s rally in San Diego, where about 1,000 protesters had gathered, CNN reported.
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SAN DIEGO – Thousands of pro-and anti-Donald Trump demonstrators faced off on Friday outside a rally for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in San Diego.
Mr Trump has repeatedly asserted that, if elected, he would build a wall along the frontier to keep out illegal immigrants.
Protesters were carrying United States and Mexican flags and holding signs criticizing Trump’s remarks about Mexican migrants.
Skirmishes erupted as both sides jeered and heckled each other, with some protesters throwing water bottles and rocks.
Riley Hansen, a 19-year-old Trump supporter who was selling T-shirts of the candidate, said it was time America voted for a businessman.
Clinton leads Trump by 4 percentage points in the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, with their positions with voters basically unchanged since Trump’s support surged two weeks ago.
In a message to the San Diego Police Department, Trump applauded the officers’ response to the protesters.
Police said they arrested 12 people after clashes broke out.
Police in riot gear declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and ordered the crowd to disperse, herding the crowd out of the city’s hotel and restaurant-filled Gaslamp Quarter.
San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman vowed before the rally that law enforcement wouldn’t tolerate any sort of violence or unlawful behavior, similar to what was seen in Albuquerque earlier in the week.
“I don’t agree with a lot of things that the presidential candidate Donald Trump has put out there”, protester Judith Castro told Evans, “like the fact that he’s using racism, discrimination”. “It is so ridiculous where they’re taking the water and shoving it out to sea”, Trump said to cheers at a rally that drew thousands.
Punches were thrown as Trump supporters and protestors squared off.
Mr Sanders told reporters on the campaign trail that he hoped Mr Trump would change his mind.
Sanders is trailing Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination, but he said he would still like to take on Trump.
A day after saying he would welcome a Sanders debate , Trump called the idea “inappropriate”, declaring that he should only face the Democrats’ final choice. Late last month, a visit to the California Republican convention set off days of protests in the area, leading to several arrests.
Trump initially said he would debate Sanders to raise money for charity but that no TV networks were ponying up.
A count by The Associated Press found Thursday that Trump has reached the required number of delegates to officially clinch the Republican nomination.
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Before Trump’s speech, the demonstrations outside were mostly peaceful.
