Trump in San Jose
I’m not a Trump supporter. But I am curious.
I work in downtown San Jose. My wife (not a Trump supporter either) had emailed to warn me about a potential traffic mess due to his rally there. When I replied that it wouldn’t be a problem for my commute, she suggested I go to it, just to see what’s up. Why not? The SJ Convention Center where it was held is only a few blocks from my office, and the 7pm start time was conveniently after work.
Protesters were everywhere. As I walked up to the front of the convention center, the guards (safely behind locked glass doors) pointed to the side. We had to walk around the block to the south “hall” (really, a giant tent).
As soon as I turned the corner, the crowd got even more raucous. I have never seen so many police in one place at one time. Blinking red & blue lights everywhere. I spotted shoulder patches from all over the South Bay: Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, SJ, Sheriff’s officers, etc. Many were decked out in riot gear. Figure at least half of them were pulling in overtime, and you have quite a hit on local community budgets.
A phalanx of officers separated the path of those headed to the event from protesters shouting in both English and Spanish. About half a block from the venue you had to pass through a knot of cops checking for tickets. I stepped aside, googled “Trump San Jose Tickets” on my phone, filled out the form, and a couple minutes later had a screen to let me in.
After passing the ticket check, the street was completely blocked off, so the protest shouts faded behind us. Once inside the tent you had to pass through metal detectors and a bag check to get in. Trump had already started at 7pm sharp, I was bit late after getting the ticket.
The South Hall tent was less than half full when I arrived, maybe just over half full by the end. I’d guess a few thousand people. From where I was standing near the back of the crowd, Trump wasn’t much more than a bright orange blob in the distance. But his voice was amped up to earsplitting levels.
Trump is not wasting money on speechwriters. His 50 minute rant was coherent but disjointed. Much of his talk is about how press reports about him are untrue. He spent quite a bit of time “debunking” news stories that appeared weeks ago, but didn’t address the current crop covering the Trump University scam.
He’s already responding to Hillary’s “thin skinned” attacks. “She’s worried about me having my finger on the nuclear button? Hey, she’s the one who voted to go into Iraq…I wouldn’t have done that.” By contrast, Trump mentioned spending more on the military several times in his talk.
Other topics, in random succession: trade deficits, guns (proud of his recent NRA endorsement), repealing Obama care, cutting regulations on business. He loved bragging about winning the Republican nomination, and vowed to campaign hard in California and New York in the general election (most Republicans abandon those states to the Democrats).
His funniest bit (I’m messing this up but it was along the lines of): “Lying Hillary’s out there saying ‘Trump started out with a $100M inheritance’. My sister hears this and calls me up, ‘Really? You got $100M?’”
“Here’s the story” is his verbal tic. “Here’s the story folks…Folks, so hear’s the story…”. Maybe it buys him time to veer off in another direction.
When Trump left the stage, the entire crowd had to exit through a single doorway. This was done to facilitate the police directing the Trump crowd an entire block out of the way from the protesters. Apparently things got ugly; I avoided it by staying a block away from the convention center on my way back to the office.
From what I could see, it’s unfair to blame all the chaos on Trump and his supporters. Most of the shouting seemed to be coming from the protesters, and it appeared to be more racially motivated than political.