Trump Jr. spurs protests at UCLA
Antifascist group organizes rally against the president’s son, who is promoting his book
Antifascist group organizes rally against the president’s son, who is promoting his new book.
Chanting “humanity first,” dozens of people protested outside the UCLA hall on Sunday where Donald Trump Jr. was speaking as part of a promotional tour for his new book.
Trump, who is promoting his book “Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us,” spoke at Moore Hall on the Westwood campus as part of an event hosted by the conservative student group Turning Point USA. Later in the day, Trump gave a lecture and signed copies of his book at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley.
The Los Angeles chapter of Refuse Fascism planned the UCLA demonstration. The leftist activist group, which has organized largescale demonstrations against the Trump administration in major U.S. cities, wrote in a Facebook post that President “Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ is a 21st century fascist program of Manifest Destiny – ‘America First’ – wrapped in the flag and Mike Pence’s Bible taken literally. A specifically American culmination of white supremacy, misogyny, and xenophobia.”
Several hundred people waited in line to attend Donald Trump Jr.’s speech at Moore Hall as a few dozen protesters gathered across the street.
Event officials later said the auditorium was full and at least 100 people were turned away. Chanting “UCLA protects fascists” and “humanity first,” the protesters banged drums and blew whistles to voice their opposition to the younger Trump’s speech and his father’s 2020 presidential campaign.
“Silence to this just normalizes it,” said Chantelle Hershberger, an organizer with Refuse Fascism. “Silence to any Trump, any part of this administration is complicity. People need to show up and oppose this strongly. The water is boiling, and we are just sitting in the pot.”
Hershberger said she read the younger Trump’s book.
It “read to me like inciting violence toward liberal people and toward anyone who holds any sort of socialist values,” she said.
UCLA police officers were on hand for crowd control. Lt. Kevin Kilgore said there were no arrests or physical confrontations during the protest.
Andy Stein, 56, drove from Carlsbad to attend the event. Among the first to arrive in line around 7:30 a.m., Stein said he supported Trump Jr. as a “chip off the old block” and admired his “feistiness.” He had not read the new book.
“I understand the concept — the left seems to be triggered by every little thing,” Stein said.
He voted twice for President Obama, he said, but the elder Trump’s performance against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 debates “swept him off his feet.” He said he had lost several friends who could not accept his support of the president.
“I see the right side as being open-minded and listening, and I don’t see that on the left,” Stein said.
Louie Rios, a 19-year-old high school senior from San Pedro, woke at 5 a.m. and was first in line to attend Trump Jr.’s speech.
Rios wore a red “Make America Great Again” hat, a Trump-Pence 2020 sweatshirt and red Converse low-top sneakers. He said he had purchased Trump Jr.’s book but hadn’t read it yet.
As for the demonstrators, he said he was just hoping for a “peaceful protest.”
“They have the right to protest as long as they don’t attack us,” Rios said. “Everyone should practice their 1st Amendment right.”
UCLA spokesman Ricardo Vazquez said the event was not sponsored by the university.
“The speakers were invited to campus by one of UCLA’s more than 1,200 student organizations, all of whom have access to university resources,” he said in a statement. “Freedom of speech and expression are core values at UCLA, but allowing someone to speak on campus is not an endorsement of their views. UCLA is committed to equity, inclusion and mutual respect as well as protecting the physical safety of everyone on campus. This includes their right to speak, be heard, hear others and peacefully dissent.”
The younger Trump’s speaking engagements came a few days after a contentious appearance on ABC’s “The View” with his girlfriend, former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, facing tough questions about his and his father’s behavior, including the elder Trump’s attacks on Mexicans and on the Khans, a Gold Star family whose son was killed in Iraq, during the 2016 campaign.
Trump Jr. defended his decision to tweet the name of someone identified on some websites as the whistleblower (who is still anonymous) in the Ukraine scandal, criticized the House impeachment inquiry as a “one-sided sham” and decried political correctness, or “PC culture,” a central topic of his book.
Paulina DiMarco, 27, of San Fernando attended the event and got a signed copy of Trump’s book.
By the time she arrived outside Moore Hall, the protesters had mostly dispersed and marched toward the UCLA student union.
“They can protest all they want,” she said. “The protesters don’t really like to talk. They like to bang their drums and yell, that’s what they do. But conversations are nice.”