BORDER/CALIFORNIA/PROTESTS/SUPPORTERS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “President Trump spent his day in California perusing border wall samples, needling state officials, raising money and upholding a White House tradition: inciting traffic so bad it gets a name.
Obamajams made way for ‘Make America Late Again’ on Tuesday [3-13-18], as Trump paid his first visit to California — a rogue state in his eyes — since he won the election in 2016. It was a trip that brought out his most ardent lovers and haters, with enough law enforcement and barricades to keep them from assaulting each other — at least as of Tuesday evening.
At the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, he elicited laughs and applause as he ripped the media and proposed a new ‘Space Force’ to wage war in space. In the Los Angeles area, he was met with vitriolic protest signs and all manner of ridicule, such as ‘Chicken Don,’ an inflatable chicken with orange hair meant to mock him as a coward.
When Marine One landed at Santa Monica airport, people flipped the middle finger at the helicopter or chanted ‘no Trump, no KKK, no Fascist USA!’ For many demonstrators, this was the first time they could register their anger directly at him…
As Trump’s motorcade sped off to a $35,000-minimum fundraiser in Beverly Park, dozens of protesters lined the streets. At the intersection of Bundy Drive and Ocean Park Boulevard, Will Kozicki was walking his two dogs when he stopped to observe demonstrators… Under gray, at times rainy skies, turnout was lighter than expected. The slippery roads during the evening commute only made the traffic worse… Intersections were snarled near downtown, where Trump was expected later at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown Hotel in the Wilshire Grand… What was new was his visit to the Mexican border east of San Diego.
On Otay Mesa, dozens of Trump supporters gathered early Tuesday about half a mile from the international boundary, where Trump would inspect eight prototypes for the border wall that was his signature campaign promise… To the west, at the border gateway of San Ysidro, dozens gathered Tuesday in a hilltop parking, with a view into Tijuana, to protest Trump and his wall.”
-Joe Mozingo, Melissa Etehad, Andrea Castillo, and Hailey Branson-Potts, “Trump’s visit draws fans cheering him to ‘Make America Great Again’ — and foes venting their anger directly at him for first time,” The Los Angeles Times online, Mar. 14, 2018 04:00am