Speaking to a friendly crowd in Anaheim, former President Donald Trump vowed “to bring back law” to California if elected back to the White House.
In a speech riddled with Republican talking points but few specifics, Trump vacillated between praising California’s Republicans — from former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon to Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland — to castigating the state for its immigration policies, homelessness, “woke tech tyrants” and more.
“You are the last line of defense standing between this state and total anarchy,” Trump said to some 1,500 people gathered at the Anaheim Marriott to hear him speak on the opening day of the California GOP convention Friday. “Help is on the way.”
“We will end the desecration of your once great state, California,” he said. “The world is being dumped into California, prisoners, terrorists, mental patients.”
Trump vowed to “solve the border problem in 24 hours” and bolster California’s water supply as he addressed those at the state Republican Party’s fall convention. Aside from the former president, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott were set to speak Friday, and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy was scheduled for Saturday.
Trump espoused his belief that he would win California in the general election if the state did away with mail ballots (except for servicemembers or the “very sick,” he said) and had stronger voter ID requirements. He claimed, without offering evidence, that California’s election system is “rigged.”
Trump didn’t shy away from making fun of President Joe Biden, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Los Angeles. Gov. Gavin Newsom, however, drew most of Trump’s ire, calling him “crooked Joe Biden’s top surrogate.”
In the background of the convention was a somber day for California politics. The former president didn’t directly address the death Thursday night of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California’s longest-serving senator. Instead, he just mentioned it in passing by saying he didn’t think he would be the next person in that seat since Newsom will need to appoint someone to it.
Just blocks away from Disney’s theme parks, Trump, clad in a navy suit and red tie, arrived to a cacophony of cheers and chants of “USA” more than an hour after his scheduled time. He then spoke for more than an hour and dipped into when Scott was slotted to address the convention.
Trump’s crowd didn’t seem to mind. It diligently booed whenever the former president mentioned a Democrat and laughed at his sarcastic remarks about electric vehicles. His line that drew the biggest reaction, however, dealt with crime:
“Simply put, if you rob a store, you can expect to be shot as you’re leaving,” Trump said, drawing a standing ovation and chants of “Trump” from attendees.
He also drew a strong reaction near the end of his remarks when he said, “We will not give any money to schools with a vaccine mandate.”
Trump’s visit to Orange County comes as he still faces legal trouble. The day before California Republicans are set to vote in the presidential primary election, Trump has a trial date in the federal case charging him with attempting to overturn the 2020 election results.
And earlier this week, a New York judge ruled Trump defrauded banks and insurers for years while building his real estate business.
The embattled former president has also been accused of being involved in making hush money payments to a porn actress and being in possession of top-secret classified documents after leaving the White House. In June, Trump pleaded not guilty to criminal charges that he mishandled those documents.
“I’m being indicted for you,” he told the crowd Friday.
On Friday morning, throngs of his supporters lined the intersections outside the Anaheim Marriott, where the CAGOP convention was held, many of them wearing red, white and blue and waving “Make America Great Again” flags.
“We are not a very Trump-friendly state, or so they say,” Theresa Fig said. “We believe it’s a lot more red.”
Lorraine Barraza, who came from San Bernardino County to wave a flag in support of Trump on the corner of Katella Avenue and Harbor Boulevard, said Trump being in California will excite his base that exists in the state and is an acknowledgment that “there’s a lot of us ‘Trumpsters’ out here.”
“Even if I wasn’t around others, I would still be out here,” Barraza said.
Cars driving by honked in support of the ralliers, with many of the vehicles adorned in Trump memorabilia.
As a counter to Trump’s Friday appearance in Anaheim, the Democratic parties of Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties had a Monopoly-inspired “Trump: Go Directly to Jail” rally of their own at the Anaheim Convention Center Grand Plaza.
Deborah Cunningham-Skurnik, who lives in Mission Viejo, said she’s fearful of hate that she sees from Trump’s base. She says Orange County is a lot more “blue” now than when she first knocked on doors during the 1988 presidential campaign.
“The demographics are changing, and they’re changing in favor of the Democrats,” she said. “I think these are some of the things that Republicans fear.”
Soon after the scheduled start time for the Democrats’ rally, dozens of Trump supporters arrived with their chants and flags to upstage the event. Shouting broke out and Democratic Party leaders used their bodies to try to block Trump supporters from getting to the center near a podium.
The Democratic event ended early, with one Trump supporter yelling, “It’s our party now!” While there were speeches planned, Orange County Democratic Party Chair Ada Briceño said they wanted to keep people safe.
“It’s imperative that if (Trump) comes to our county, that we counter his presence,” Briceño said.
But inside the Marriott, thousands of people who paid to see Trump snaked around the hotel halls hours before he was slated to speak. They were there early to get through security, socialize, stop by various conservative booths and buy merchandise.
Balboa Park resident Lissa Collins-Gudim, as she waited to purchase some Trump merch from a booth outside the room where the former president was set to speak, said she believes “Trump is our only hope.”
“Our country is in decline and we gotta turn this train around. Our GOP better get behind Trump, get rid of the RINOs and turn this country around,” said Collins-Gudim, using a term that is used to refer to Republicans who are considered to be not loyal to the party.
Outside the ballroom where Trump spoke, campaign signs for DeSantis peppered the walls. Vendors sold merch, including shirts with the slogan “Try that in a small town” — a country song that went viral earlier this year and which some critics called racist — and “Latinos for Trump.”
Convention attendees carried flags bearing phrases like, “He’ll Be Back. Trump 2024” and “Gay Democrats for Trump.”
The former president is still polling far ahead of his competitors among California Republican likely voters — albeit, just under the threshold set by the state party to sweep all of the state’s 169 delegates. Of those surveyed, 48% said they would vote for Trump if the primary were held now, according to recent data from the Public Policy Institute of California, while 14% picked DeSantis.
DeSantis, around the same time as Trump’s speech in Anaheim, held a campaign rally in Long Beach on Friday afternoon.
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