Thousands flock to see Donald Trump rally near Coachella

“Make America Great Again” was the theme at the Indio fairgrounds Saturday, Oct. 12, as thousands of Donald Trump fans waited in sweltering heat to attend the former president’s late afternoon rally outside Coachella.

Trump, the Republican 2024 presidential nominee, spoke to supporters after 5 p.m. at Calhoun Ranch, not far from the fairgrounds, one of three sites where people could park and board a shuttle to the campaign event.

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For some, including Kristin Carlile of Vista in San Diego County, it was their first time at a Trump rally.

Since Trump left office, “it’s a scary place,” said Carlile, who said she stopped training for marathons — which required her to run alone — because she feels unsafe.

“I’m just excited to see all this unexpected support for Trump,” she said, waving to the sea of red Make American Great Again hats around her. “It gives me chills. It’s like the silent majority has woken up.”

Joshua Tree resident John Erickson also was heartened by the turnout.

“This is my family,” he said.

Videos posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, showed throngs of people gathering at the Riverside County Fairgrounds as early as 7 am. By 12:30 p.m., it took about a hour to park at the fairgrounds, which each year hosts the Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival.

By then, a sea of Trump flags and people wearing the Trump campaign’s red Make America Great Again hats waited in a line running the length of the fairgrounds to catch yellow school buses to the rally.

Vendors in tents sold a range of Trump merchandise, from T-shirts and hats to golf balls, shot glasses and bumper stickers with the former president’s name and image — some more profane than others.

By 3 p.m., vendors reported running out of what many people wanted: water. At least one older woman appeared to be overcome by the heat as Riverside County sheriff’s deputies helped her.

Newport Beach resident Kierstin Olsen, who spent the night in the Coachella Valley so she could attend the rally, fashioned a cape from a Trump flag as she sat in the shade beneath a grandstand.

“You can see the energy,” she said. “It shows you that people stay and support (Trump) through adversity.”

One of the vendors was Lauryn Nelson of Springfield, Missouri, who travels around the country with her father selling Trump merchandise.

One of her top sellers? A T-shirt with the slogan “Can’t Kill Freedom” and a photo of Trump raising his first in the air after the attempt on his life during a Pennsylvania rally in July.

Red Trump caps and flags flew on the back of pickups. The American flag was well represented on attendees’ shirts and hats. T-shirts bore slogans such as “Let’s Go Brandon!” — a crude reference to President Joe Biden — “I’m Voting for the Felon” and “Jesus is my Savior, Trump is my President.”

One man even donned socks with the former president’s face on it — with puffs of orange representing Trump’s hair. The diverse crowd had a blend of ages and races. One woman’s T-shirt read: “This Latina is Voting for Trump.”

Wearing a red “Make Votes Count Again” cap, Steve Huffman said he was there to “see the most popular man on the planet and our next president.”

“I was excited” to hear Trump was visiting Coachella, Huffman said. “I’ve always wanted to to go to (a rally) since the whole thing started … There’s nothing like being there.”

Also in line was a Trump impersonator in a red tie, blue blazer, blond hair — and even orange face coloring.

Emulating Trump’s signature accent, he boasted about turning California red and making Hollywood great again by brining back “Jaws,” “Star Wars” and Indiana Jones.

Saturday’s rally was Trump’s first official campaign visit in Riverside County. He appeared at a Coachella Valley fundraiser in 2020 and has a connection with the desert dating to the Trump 29 Casino near Indio — now Spotlight 29 Casino — in the early 2000s.

The rally took place just outside Coachella, a city of roughly 42,000 about 28 miles southeast of Palm Springs. The city is strongly Democratic, with 78% of Coachella voters casting a ballot for Joe Biden in 2020.

Latinos make up 98% of the city’s residents and 41% of Coachella’s population is foreign-born. If elected, Trump has promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, depicts migrants as marauding, murderous invaders and launched his 2016 by saying Mexico sends rapists, drug dealers and other criminals into the U.S.

All this, at first glance, makes Coachella an odd choice for a rally 29 days before the election. But Latino GOP consultant Mike Madrid has said the rally is less about winning votes in deep-blue California than generating media coverage and images that could appeal to Latinos in swing states.

Recent polling shows Republicans making gains among Latinos, a traditionally strong Democratic voting bloc. While Vice President Kamala Harris leads Trump in terms of the overall Latino vote, majorities of 18- to 34-year-old Latinos in the swing states of Nevada and Arizona favored Trump, according to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll conducted in late September and early October.

Local Democrats denounced Trump’s visit, including Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Indio, who represents Coachella and hosted an anti-Trump event in Palm Desert on Wednesday, Oct. 9.

“Under a second Trump administration, there is literally no place in America that would be harmed more than the Coachella Valley,” Ruiz said in a written statement. “Donald Trump — and his policies — are an affront to everything that makes the Coachella Valley a vibrant community.”

Anti-Trump picketers also staged the Coachella Unity Rally before the former president’s speech.

The rally was at Calhoun Ranch, which offers vacant lots for sale to real estate investors. The ranch belongs to the Haagen family, which also owns the Empire Polo Club in Indio where the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach Country Music Festival take place annually.

The Haagens also are big-money GOP donors. Since 2016, the Haagen Co. has contributed at least $400,000 to Trump’s reelection campaign, federal campaign finance records show. The Haagans also have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee since 2004, according to records.

Before Trump took the stage, skip loaders delivered pallets of ice across the ranch grounds. Actor Dennis Quaid, clad in a red Make America Great Again cap, spoke to the crowd. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., also addressed Trump supporters.

A sign at the rally read “Coachella welcomes President Donald J. Trump,” with the words “Coachella” written in style of the famous music festival staged in nearby Indio each spring. An American flag with a photo of Trump giving the thumbs up sign had the words “I’ll be back.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.