Hundreds of protesters rallied against presidential candidate Donald Trump at the California Republican convention on Friday, delaying Trump’s speech and forcing him to take an unconventional route into the convention.
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Since the front entrance was blocked, Trump’s motorcade stopped on a nearby highway, and Secret Service agents walked Trump off the freeway, through a barrier in a fence and to the hotel’s back entrance, reports The Guardian.
There was a turbulent reception for Donald Trump in southern California on Thursday with some 20 demonstrators arrested outside a campaign rally by the Republican frontrunner for the United States presidential election.
On Thursday, a police vehicle had its windows smashed as Mr Trump spoke inside a hall in the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.
About 20 people were arrested, said the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
“That was not the easiest entrance”, he said as he began his speech, quipping that it “felt like I was crossing the border”.
Protests that stayed mostly peaceful during the event grew in size and anger after.
In terms of delegate support, the property tycoon is far ahead of his nearest rivals, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and John Kasich, the governor of Ohio.
There are 172 delegate votes at stake in California and they could be vital to the billionaire businessman, who is chasing the target of 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination and avoid a contested convention. They said they were protesting Trump’s lack of engagement on issues of gender equality and women’s rights.
Demonstrators at both locations waved Mexican flags, an action meant to counter Trump’s hard stance on immigration and disparaging remarks about Mexico.
On Thursday night, violence erupted during demonstrations at a Trump rally in the city of Costa Mesa.
Trump spoke later in the day at the California Republican Convention there. “Look around the crowd”.Watching the chaos unfold, Colby Nicholson, 30, who described himself as a Trump supporter who traveled to the rally from San Diego, wore a “Make America Great Again” hat.
Over the course of the last 24 hours, violent outbursts have occurred outside of multiple Donald Trump campaign events in California.
As the audience broke out into laughter, Trump told the crowd: “It’s true”.
He said: “There has to be unity in our party”. Police officers then rushed to the building’s doors, successfully blocking the protesters from getting in.
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Donald Trump took his outsider campaign to the inner sanctum of California’s Republican party, making his case directly to the GOP’s state party convention even as angry demonstrators shadowed him outside in a possible harbinger of the controversy he will bring as the nominating process shifts toward the nation’s most populous and diverse state. Authorities said no serious injuries were reported, but at least one Trump supporter was seen with his face blooded in a scuffle as he left the arena.
