Both presidential campaigns agree that the seven battleground states are likely to determine the outcome of this year’s election. California, which has not voted Republican in presidential elections since 1988, is not among them.
But that didn’t stop former President Donald J. Trump from heading there Saturday evening to hold a rally at Coachella. Coachella is better known for its annual music festival, which features headliners such as Lana Del Rey and Bad Bunny, than it is a destination during the presidential campaign.
It was an unusual choice made 24 days before the election. In 2020, Trump lost the state to President Biden by more than 5 million votes. Four years ago, Trump lost the state to Hillary Clinton, who won more than 60% of the vote. The last Republican to win the state was George H.W. Bush.
Trump is not expected to be competitive in California, but the rally showed he could draw a crowd. At the Calhoun Ranch, many people braved the desert sun and temperatures that soared to nearly 100 degrees, with several participants needing treatment for heat stroke.
“I want to say hello to Coachella in a special way,” Trump told the audience, wearing a red Make America Great Again hat to protect himself from the desert sun.
Trump then gave a rambling speech for about 80 minutes. He criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’ home state of California as a hotbed of failed liberal policies. He disparaged the appearance of Rep. Adam Schiff, who led the first impeachment trial and is now running for the Senate. He used a vulgar nickname to refer to Governor Gavin Newsom. And he took multiple detours to praise billionaire Elon Musk and criticize President Biden.
This is Trump’s second visit to a blue state in two days. On Friday, he traveled to Aurora, Colorado, where he staged a series of xenophobic attacks and promoted falsehoods about crimes committed by immigrants in a state where Harris is safely leading in the polls. And this week, word surfaced that Trump is scheduled to hold a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on October 27th. This is Trump’s third major campaign in New York, once his home state. This one is also solid blue. He has already held rallies on Long Island and the South Bronx this campaign.
At the California rally, several speakers mocked Harris, who represented California in the Senate and served as attorney general, about the problems facing the state. Trump called California a “lost paradise.”
Trump gave a shoutout to actor Dennis Quaid, who spoke at the rally.
Schiff’s Republican opponent in the Senate race, Steve Garvey, an All-Star baseball player with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in the 1970s and 1980s, did not attend Trump’s rally, a campaign spokesperson said. the person in charge said.
The spokesperson did not mention that Trump said last month that Garvey was making a “big mistake” by not embracing the “Make America Great Again” movement.
The Desert Sun reported that Garvey will be out of state attending a symposium for women in sports media in Philadelphia.
Both Mr. Trump and his critics sought to use the iconography of the Coachella rally to energize voters. The former president posted a photo on social media showing himself as a Coachella headliner with palm trees and snow-capped mountains synonymous with the desert oasis. And the Lincoln Project, a prominent anti-Trump group, has created its own “Trumpella” social media posts that resemble music festival posters, but whose lineup includes “Trump federal power grab” and “Federal government It included Trump supporters from all walks of life.
Trump is no stranger to Coachella. His name was once emblazoned on a casino just eight miles from the site of Saturday’s rally as part of a short-lived business partnership with a Native American tribe, but it ultimately led to his company teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Eventually, the tribe bought him out.
