Further friction as Trump tries to woo Golden State
Tough talk on border control and deportation may not hold much appeal for California voters.
Donald Trump brought his message of walls and deportations to the doorstep of America’s busiest border crossing yesterday as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee greeted supporters in San Diego, amid one of the largest counter-protests organised against him.
The scene inside the San Diego Convention Centre during Trump’s speech was relatively placid. Outside, demonstrators opposed to his controversy-ridden White House bid marched and chanted, carrying signs criticising his rhetoric against illegal immigration.
Waving United States and Mexican flags, more than 1000 people turned out for anti-trump rallies in San Diego, a city on the US-Mexico border whose San Ysidro port of entry sees nearly 300,000 people a day cross legally between the countries.
San Diego is considered a binational city by many who live and work on opposite sides of the border, and about a third of the city’s population is Latino.
During Trump’s speech, some protesters outside the convention centre scaled a barrier and lobbed water bottles at police. One man was pulled off the wall and arrested, while others were surrounded by fellow protesters and backed away from the confrontation.
After the convention centre emptied, clusters of Trump supporters and anti-Trump demonstrators began to mix in the streets, many exchanging shouted epithets and some throwing water bottles at one another.
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.
Police reported making more than dozen arrests during the hour following the department’s order to disperse.
Trump has weathered months of blowback from all ends of the political spectrum for his immigration policy, which calls for the building of a wall along the USMexico border and deporting the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants who reside in the US.
Critics have said his plan is needlessly cruel and impossible to implement. At Trump’s campaign I will wait to debate the first-place finisher in the Democratic Party, probably Crooked Hillary Clinton. stops, attendees often chant ‘‘build the wall’’.
While Trump is running unopposed in the June 7 California Republican primary, his stance on border control and deportation seems unlikely to resonate with the electorate at large in a state where political fallout from a Republicanbacked crackdown on illegal immigrants 20 years ago cost the party dearly.
Yesterday was not the first time Trump had been greeted by civil unrest in California, which is home to the largest Latino population in the country. Late last month a visit to the California Republican convention set off days of protests in the area, leading to several arrests.
Shortly before taking the stage in San Diego, Trump issued a statement ruling out a one-on-one debate with second-placed Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders, who was also in California, killing off a potentially high-rating TV spectacle.
The suggested debate, an idea first raised during a talkshow appearance by the New York billionaire, would have sidelined likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton but given Sanders a huge platform ahead of the California Democratic primary.
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.
‘‘I will wait to debate the firstplace finisher in the Democratic Party, probably Crooked Hillary Clinton,’’ he said.
Sanders, a senator from Vermont, expressed disappointment and sought to goad Trump into reconsidering.
‘‘Well, Mr Trump, what are you afraid of?’’ he said in a video clip posted on ABC News’s Twitter account.
Trump suggested that American broadcast networks were unwilling to go along with his demand that at least US$10 million raised from the encounter be donated to charity.
‘‘I’d love to debate Bernie,’’ he told an earlier rally in Fresno, California. ‘‘But the networks want to keep the money for themselves.’’
Sanders is trailing Clinton in the race to secure their party’s nomination, but opinion polls show that he is slicing into her lead in California.
Clinton has shown no interest in debating Sanders before the California primary, which will be part of a final slate of nominating contests. It is possible she will clinch the nomination by winning New Jersey earlier that day, making the outcome in California superfluous.
The former US secretary of state has said she is looking forward to debating Trump later this year ahead of the November 8 general election.
Clinton leads Trump by 4 percentage points in the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. Democrats nationally remain evenly split between Clinton and Sanders.