In the wake of his controversial, some say “RAAAAACIST™” comments decrying illegal immigration, Donald Trump has become a lightening rod in the Republican Party, who has RINOS everywhere scurrying for cover. Nowhere was that more apparent than here in Arizona, where the staunchly conservative Maricopa County Republican Committee, against the wishes of the RINOfied State GOP leadership, invited Trump to speak. The usual suspect RINOs such as John “My Friends” McCain rushed to disavow any connection with Trump, while the popular and controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio made clear his support for Trump’s opposition to illegal immigration, although he has not endorsed him as a candidate.
I got a text from PHXGirl on Friday that Trump was coming to AZ, and as of noon on Saturday, when he was due to appear in the Phoenix Convention Center at 2:00PM, over 9000 invites had been given out via EventBrite. Due to some personal commitments I got to the convention center late, at around 2:21, but the line of people waiting to get in to hear “The Donald” speak stretched around the south, east and north side of the Phoenix Convention Center North complex.
And of course, the opposition was there as well, on the Southwest corner of the building there was a small knot of Anglo Leftist hipster teenagers and LaRazanistas, including an odd looking hipster chick who was selling “Joe Arpaio Voodoo Dolls”. At that point I was figuring out how to get into the event so I hurriedly transited through the south end of the building to the southeast corner outside patio, and missed the opportunity to snap a pic of hipster chick.
As the line of people moved along the east side of the building, a security guard with a walkie-talkie informed us that the ballroom where Trump was speaking was full, that the fire marshall and decided not to allow any more people in for safety reasons. As we turned the corner to the north side of the building, there were the largest group of the protestors, again a mixed crew of Anglo Leftists and LaRaza types. The protestors were on the North side of Monroe street, making a racket with the typical stale old Lefty “hey hey, ho ho, (fill in the blank here – in this case Trump and Arpaio) has got to go!” chant and blasting noisy freon horns. A police street barricade fence was down the middle on the closed street, and on the south side of Monroe in the shade of the portico of the building were those of us who were still trying to get in to the event and a line of Phoenix PD with riot gear at the ready. The crowd of protestors was small compared to the amount of people wanting to hear Trump, maybe a few hundred at the most but they were noisy and aggressive. Several people from the Trump side tried to engage in polite dialog with them but were shouted down.
The pro-Trump crowd was predominantly White and middle-class looking, but there were at least as many non-Whites mixed in among the pro-Trump crowd as there were protestors, but they were more varied. There were Hispanics, Blacks and Asians among the pro-Trump crowd, while the protestors were exclusively Anglo and Hispanic.
As it became clear to me that I was not going to be able to get into the event, I decided to “Zombie” style, take pics of the “rojos”, as I had not seen this many Leftists out on the streets of Phoenix since the AB1070 protests a few years ago.
This fellow says Trump is a “Tyrannical Racist Unscrupulous Monster Pig!” and a Confederate Flag fan to boot! OMG! And here I thought he was a damnyankee from New York City!
These two vatos locos in the bandanas were screaming obscenities at the pro-Trump crowd…”Trump you can suck my…” well, you get the picture. Curious about the red and blue bandanas…Sureños y Norteños unidad contra “El Donald”?
Mexico? It’s about 200 miles south, sweetie.
Hipsters against Trump!
Phoenix’s finest keep a watchful eye on los rojos.
Trump owns Dell Computers now?
The ginger-haired guy with the glasses in the blue shirt with his back to the camera was trying to dialogue with the protestor blond haired woman in front of him. He was so soft-spoken I could not hear what he was saying, I’m guessing it had something to do with the military since the woman kept shouting that she was Mexican and her son was in the USMC. And your point is? If you are here legally and your son is serving in the Marines, then you are not the problem Trump is talking about!
Trump supporters hoping to get in and Phoenix PD
Devo fans for Trump!
Donald Trump: Bringing more cowbell to the GOP!
