Republican Donald Trump gathered supporters and curiosity-seekers this Wednesday night in Manassas, Virginia, a suburb best known for its historical background, being a U.S. Civil War battlefield. It’s also the same place where back in 2008, then Illinois senator Barack Obama gathered almost 100,000 people and talked about the country’s racial, ethnic and political divisions.
As for Mr. Trump, he once again succeeded in creating a lot of controversy, thanks to the topics he approached during his 80-minute discourse. Some of them were his promise to build a wall between the United States and Mexico and reversing President Obama’s policies, which, in his opinion, favor illegal immigrants over U.S. citizens.
Immigrants are a very big problem for Mr. Trump
These topics are not surprising though, as Donald Trump has currently taken a unique path in its campaign. He has already made statements about his primary opponents in the Republican race, not to mention the claims about immigrants, women and Muslims. Surprisingly or not, his backers applaud this willingness to let it all out and speak his mind. On the other side, critics are constantly accusing him of appealing to Americans’ worst fears an prejudices.
The rally in Manassas began on a higher note, as a moment of silence was kept, in recognition of the victims of the mass shooting from San Bernardino, California. Shortly after, Trump praised the police but also mentioned the gun control issue. Then, he shifted to his campaign speech.
“I used to call it a silent majority,” Trump said, speaking about his base of support. “It’s not a silent majority; it’s really become a noisy majority.”
They have way too much privileges!
Moving on to the illegal immigrants issue, Donald Trump mentioned that the Obama administration is offering them more facilities than military veterans have. Still, the moment when the crowd went wild was when he mentioned building the wall between the United States and Mexico, in order to stop people from coming illegally to the U.S.
“Hardened concrete, Rebar and steel!” Trump told a young boy who asked what will the wall be made of.
Like expected, there were members in the audience who didn’t agree will all of Donald Trump‘s ideas. From a mix of die-hard fans, voters who were curious to find out more about his platform and opponents who said they wanted to experience Trump in person, he had to deal with the third category.
“Get them out, we have to. Will the police remove them, very gently please?” Trump said after hearing protesters outside.
Struggling to get support from as many communities as possible
The Republican also tried to get as much support as possible from the Jewish community. The rally took place on the eve of his appearance in nearby Washington Thursday, at the Republican Jewish Conference, so he talked about his plans of visiting Israel “very soon”.
Currently, Donald Trump leads the GOP race, with 27 percent of the party’s voters, according to Bloomberg. “We’re gonna win—a lot. We’re going to win all the time,” Trump told the crowd in Manassas. “It’s all about winning. It’s really about making America great again.”
