Republican presidential front-runner Donald J. Trump addresses a rally at the Orange County fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Calif., in Thursday. The event saw violent protesters outside, where 20 people were arrested for fighting with Trump supporters. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI |
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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29 (UPI) -- For a second consecutive day, protesters in California swarmed the location of a rally for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, prompting the Secret Service to change plans for how the candidate was to enter the building.
Trump was scheduled to speak at the San Francisco Hyatt Regency Airport hotel, where the California Republican Party convention is being held. Protesters swarmed the outside of the venue and broke through a barricade to reach the entrance of the hotel.
The crowd prompted the Secret Service and California Highway Patrol to halt Trump's motorcade by pulling off a highway. Agents then escorted Trump up a grassy hill and into the back entrance of the hotel, away from the protesters, Politico reported.
Trump joked about the incident to the crowd once he made his way inside.
"That was not the easiest entrance I've ever made," Trump told the crowd, describing the scene. "I felt like I was crossing the border, actually."
It was unclear whether the protests outside led to any violence, as was the case the night before in Orange County, where protesters and Trump supporters clashed outside a rally at the Orange County Fairgrounds.
There, police, some of them clad in riot gear, pushed back against protesters as they clashed with rally-goers. Some protesters called Trump supporters racists and others waved Mexican flags, a reference to Trump's outspoken opposition to illegal immigration and his comments calling some Mexicans "rapists."
Police in Orange County said they made 20 arrests and the rear windshield of a cruiser was smashed during the incident.
