Trump: Boasts of lead
Trump told the crowd at a park in Fountain Hills, a suburb of Phoenix, that the nomination is his and he is “winning by massive landslides.” He also repeated past promises to boost military spending significantly and build a wall along the Mexican border to keep illegal immigrants out of the U.S.
The billionaire businessman and reality TV show host has also promised to kick all illegal immigrants in the country out. There are some 11 million illegal immigrants in America.
The rally did not see the kind of violence that past recent Trump rallies have as the leader appeared to intentionally dampen down the kind of rhetoric for which he as of late been criticized for. Last week a rally at the University of Illinois in Chicago was cancelled due to concerns of violence.
However, some anti-Trump protestors at the Phoenix rally went farther than other protesters have. A group of perhaps two dozen parked their vehicles in the middle of the main road leading to the rally, chanting “Trump is hate.” Many also carried flags with anti-Trump slogans such as “Dump Trump.”
Predictably, motorists reacted with anger by honking horns and police eventually got the road cleared. The protesters continued on to the rally but there were no notable violent outbursts between them and Trump supporters.
Arpaio boosts Trump
Attending the rally and at Trump’s side was Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, of which most of Phoenix and Arizona is a part of. The wiki page for Arpaio notes that he’s “been accused of abuse of power, misuse of funds, failure to investigate sex crimes, improper clearance of cases, unlawful enforcement of immigration laws, and election law violations….”
The 83-year-old lawman was found guilty in federal court of racial profiling and his jails were ruled as unconstitutional. A monitor was appointed by a federal court to oversee his operations. Arpaio is a big Trump supporter.
It is debatable whether you can call Trump’s lead a massive landslide, but he is very much in front. Of the 1,237 delegates needed to win, Trump has 678, Ted Cruz has 423 and John Kasich has 143. There are 20 states and American Samoa left to vote and Trump leads the polls in most.
