With 23 days left until Election Day and voters already casting their votes, former President Trump will return to California for a rally in the Coachella Valley on Saturday.
The event was scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Calhoun Ranch polo fields outside Coachella, but supporters lined up hours in advance in the scorching desert heat to see the former president. Large ice tanks quickly emptied as participants sought every shade possible and clutched cubes to place under hats or stuff into water bottles.
“Welcome to Trumpchella!” said state Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Milan Patterson, one of the former president’s prepared speakers.
The visit of President Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, to his home state is a powerful blow to not only California itself, one of Trump’s favorite campaign refrains, but also the liberal policies of the Bay Area native. It’s an opportunity to eat.
And the Coachella Valley, with its thriving agriculture industry and home to many Latino farmworkers, is the backdrop for President Trump’s emphasis on the region’s water and agricultural needs, as well as immigration. According to the U.S. Census, Latinos make up nearly 98% of Coachella’s population.
“The Coachella Valley is known as the president’s playground,” said Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Coachella), noting that Sen. Bernie Sanders (R-Vt.) campaigned in the valley. He pointed out that former President Obama had come to play golf, and that President Ford and other presidents had come to play golf. Eisenhower retired in this area. Still, he called President Trump’s decision to visit Coachella “inexplicable.”
“We’re used to presidents coming here and leaving their mark, and we respect and love them…but former President Trump is different,” Lewis said at Coachella, where he spoke with reporters throughout the day.・Said on the phone from Valley. “Not only in his mean comments, but also in his policies, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of respect for the demographics that live here.”
The rally is located just outside the 41st Congressional District, where Democrat Will Rollins, a former federal prosecutor, is running against Republican Rep. Ken Calvert, who is scheduled to attend the rally. This election campaign will be crucial in determining which party wins control of parliament.
Calvert, who was endorsed by President Trump in the 2022 Congressional election, acknowledged Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory but voted against certifying the 2020 election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. .
Mary and Pete Venegas drove more than an hour from their home in Hemet to see President Trump, where they both plan to vote for the first time in November.
Mary Venegas, a former Democrat who sat out the 2020 election because she was reluctant about Biden, said Trump deserves a “second chance.” Wearing a red President Trump T-shirt, she said she is now a registered Republican.
“He made me do it,” Mary Venegas said with a laugh, poking fun at her husband, who runs a construction and landscaping business and is a Trump supporter for his business acumen.
Trump’s visit to the Golden State is his second in the past month since he stopped to speak with reporters at the Rancho Palos Verdes golf course, sandwiched between two big-ticket fundraisers in Beverly Hills and the Bay Area in September. This will be his second visit to the Golden State.
President Trump has announced that he will hold a rally on October 27th at Madison Square Garden in New York, another heavily Democratic state. California Republican strategists, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the former president’s motivations include a desire to increase his share of the popular vote — 5 million, even though California leans Democratic. There are more registered Republicans than people.
At Saturday’s rally, mentions of Gov. Gavin Newsom by Harris and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who was a delegate to the Republican National Committee, drew boos from the audience.
“California’s breakdown in public order began more than a decade ago with the policies and ideas of Gavin Newsom, under the watch of Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris,” Bianco said, reducing certain thefts and crimes to misdemeanors. He mentioned Proposition 47, which is on the state ballot.
Prop. 47 was implemented on Harris’ watch, but as attorney general she refused to weigh in on the political debate. California voters will decide whether to repeal parts of the 2014 measure this year when they vote on Proposition 36.
President Trump held a rally in Aurora, Colorado, on Friday. This is the state that lost by more than 13 points in 2002. President Trump falsely claimed that Aurora was hijacked by Venezuelan gang members. He also visited Nevada on Friday night.
Speaking at the Detroit Economic Club on Thursday, he insulted the city and warned that he foresaw what would happen to the country if Harris were elected president.
“If she were elected president, the whole country would look like Detroit,” Trump said. “We’re not going to let her do that to this country. We’re not going to allow that.”
Democrats in Michigan, one of the states likely to determine which party wins the White House, panicked.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer said, “Detroit is the epitome of grit, defined by winners who get their hands dirty to build their city and create their community. I never understood it,” he wrote on the former social media site X. It is known as Twitter. “So don’t talk about Detroit. And you better believe Detroiters won’t forget this come November.”
Republicans in the state were also surprised by President Trump’s remarks.
“Not since Henry Ford gave the world wheels has Michiganders been so proud of the city of Detroit. The Lions and Tigers have soared high, the city has come to life, and Donald Trump has arrived. We completely condemn that progress,” said an outraged Republican strategist who was granted anonymity and contacted a Times reporter after hearing the remarks. Speak up. “I don’t think he should be surprised if they give votes to Kamala Harris to reward his comments. And it’s not just the residents of Detroit. Hundreds of thousands of voters are I would be extremely proud of the city.”
Harris said President Trump’s comments about Detroit represent a trend.
“My opponent, Donald Trump, destroyed yet another great American city while in Detroit. This is just further evidence on a very long list of reasons why he is unfit to be President of the United States. ” Harris said. he told reporters Thursday in Las Vegas.
President Trump similarly criticized Milwaukee earlier this year in a meeting with House Republicans just before the Republican National Convention was held in the battleground state of Wisconsin. He also disparaged Philadelphia and Atlanta, which are in the states that will decide which party wins the White House.
