BURLINGAME – Protests erupted in California for the second day in a row on Friday against United States presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is moving closer to winning the Republican nomination after a string of victories this week.
The billionaire businessman was forced to halt his motorcade and go through a back entrance to a hotel to give a speech to the California Republican convention and avoid several hundred loud protesters gathered outside.
“That was not the easiest entrance I’ve ever made,” Trump told the gathering in Burlingame, south of San Francisco, after weaving around a barrier and clambering across a road to get to the venue. “It felt like I was crossing the border actually.”
Demonstrators, some of whom held Mexican national flags, at one point rushed security gates at the hotel and police officers had their batons out.
The mogul had already drawn protests in California, with chaotic scenes on Thursday outside a Trump rally in Costa Mesa. Anti-Trump protesters smashed the window of a police car and blocked traffic. Some 20 people were arrested.
Protests have become common outside rallies for Trump who has earned ardent critics, as well as support from Republican voters, for his rhetoric against illegal immigration. His campaign abandoned a rally in Chicago last month after clashes between his supporters and protesters.
He has accused Mexico of sending drug dealers and rapists across the U.S. border and has promised to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it.
Trump, who described himself this week as the party’s presumptive nominee, would take a large stride toward knocking his Republican rivals out of the presidential race if he wins the Indiana primary next week.
On Friday, he said he is approaching the 1 237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. (Reuters)
