Trump Nation gathers in Phoenix
Simmering in summer heat, Phoenix is wary of hotter tempers
Mark Havard confronts protesters as he lines up for President Trump’s campaignstyle rally Tuesday night at the Phoenix Convention Center. It’s Trump’s first visit as president to Arizona, where he made illegal immigration a signature theme on the campaign trail last year. Bracing for tens of thousands of supporters and protesters, authorities closed roads around the capital, and many businesses, offices, schools and even state courts shut their doors.
President Trump returned Tuesday to Arizona, one of his favored campaign stops, seeking to steady his administration after escalating tensions over his suggestion that white nationalists and their opponents shared the blame for deadly violence last week in Charlottesville, Va.
Trump went to meet border officials in Yuma where he sought to bolster his case for a U.S.-Mexican border wall.
Hours before an evening rally here, his administration ended speculation that the president would use the visit to pardon Joe Arpaio, the former Phoenix-area sheriff who oversaw a racial profiling campaign that resulted in his criminal conviction for contempt of court. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said no action would be taken on the issue Tuesday.
Gov. Doug Ducey was not scheduled to attend Trump’s rally, but he did meet the president on the tarmac in Phoenix.
Hundreds lined up in the summer heat hours before Trump’s scheduled speech to support the president. Though Trump’s approval rating has fallen in some polling, the enthusiasm for his muscular approach to immigration and foreign trade deals was on display outside the Phoenix Convention Center.
Signs such as “Trump won, go ahead and cry” and “Assault victims 4 Trump” made plain that whatever his problems navigating Washington, members of his base remain loyal.
Trump supporters such as Alexis Marcelino of Apple Valley, Calif., wanted him to definitively clarify that he does not support hate groups.
“We all agree that that is hateful, and I kind of hope from there that we can move on,” she said as she waited to attend Trump’s speech.
Trump’s controversial comments from last week had authorities on edge as they expected thousands of protesters to march in downtown Phoenix in opposition to the president’s visit.
“We refuse to stand idly by while Trump destroys everything America stands for,” said Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, a Democrat, who traveled to Phoenix to join a protest.
By backing away from an Arpaio pardon Trump may have — at least for now — defused some of his most vocal opponents in the Hispanic and immigrant communities. Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, a Democrat, said in a tweet that the decision showed the “power of … fighting for justice.”
Some Trump fans showed support for Kelli Ward, a former Arizona state senator who is challenging incumbent Sen. Jeff Flake’s re-election campaign. Trump and Flake have traded barbs for more than a year, and the relationship has grown more bitter since Flake published a book, Conscience of a Conservative, that attacked Trump’s political style as harmful to the Republican Party.
Other Arizona dignitaries were notably cool to the president’s visit. Stanton publicly asked Trump not to visit the city, saying he feared the president would only make matters worse.
Like Flake, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is receiving treatment for brain cancer, was not likely to attend Trump’s rally. Last month, McCain cast the decisive vote to thwart the GOP’s health care legislation, a move that touched off another round of intra-party fighting.
Signs such as “Trump won, go ahead and cry” and “Assault victims 4 Trump” made plain that whatever his problems navigating Washington, members of his base remain loyal.