Republican front-runner Donald Trump hosted a rally at the University of Central Florida campus on March 5. Trump has been the centerpiece of recent presidential news due to his incendiary remarks, such as implying that Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers, proposing a ban on all Muslim immigrants, and saying, “You have to treat [women] like s—.”
Despite his bigotry, however, Trump has an alarming level of support. Both UCF students and non-students from Orlando area organizations showed up to protest the rally and to make their stance on Trump known.
The protest’s Facebook page had over three thousand people interested and over one thousand committed to going. Trump gave away free tickets to his rally, presumably to bolster the image of a popular following, but many of the people in the line waiting to see Trump shouted encouragement to the
protesters, though others also occasionally crossed the street to the protesting side to preach their love of
Trump.
On the whole, the protest was a festive one. There was a young woman with a headdress made out of dollar bills and a sign reading, “This is all Trump cares about.” Another young man dressed up as a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. One student had a sign asking Trump to “Show Us the Girth Certificate,” referencing the joke that Trump, a man who spearheaded the “birther movement” to see President Obama’s birth certificate, made of himself by bragging about his penis size during a nationally televised Republican debate.
A recurring theme in discussions with the protesters was that many didn’t believe Trump was a “real” candidate. Reva Stover, an art student at UCF echoed that sentiment: “I think his main objective is to split the Republican Caucus, but he is not meant to be president, and I think he knows that. And that’s why he keeps spewing lies and contradicting himself.”
Stover also mentioned that Trump’s platform would affect her personally if implemented. “As an artist and a woman and a person of color, there are a lot of ways that it would affect me. He doesn’t believe in universal healthcare, which is paramount to my family because my sister is very sick. Both of my sisters are part of the LGBTQ community, and anyone who fights against that is fighting against me. Also he wants to underfund the arts, and that is literally what I want to do with the rest of my life.” When asked about the demeanor of Trump’s supporters, she recounted an episode in which a man approached the protest, claiming Trump would “take care of” and deport her, even though Stover is a citizen.
Many at the protest also believed that Trump’s behavior is causing the GOP to lose its credibility. Ryan McKinless from the Knights Against Trump drove that point home, saying, “People assume that this is just UCF students who are Democrats or liberals––that’s not the case. We have conservatives and Republicans out here. Donald Trump is just bad news for politics.” Chris Chambers, another organizer, called Trump “the fall of American democracy.” Chambers also decried that Donald Trump hesitated in denouncing David Duke, the leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
Trump’s anti-Muslim talking points have created a large opposition in the Muslim community. One of the biggest groups of protesters at the rally were from American Islam, a national organization focused on building understanding between American Muslims and the rest of the United States. Bassem Chaaban, a spokesperson for the organization, told Liberation News that what concerned him most was the harmful rhetoric that Donald Trump uses. “He’s very hateful not only toward Muslims but also toward other people––minorities: Latinos, women, veterans, even disabled people. Some people have said he has reduced his rhetoric, but we think he’s just playing politics.” Chaaban also commented on Trump’s suggestion of banning Muslims, saying, “If we didn’t believe he was serious, it would be a joke.”
The fact that this rally brought out such a varied range of people and organizations, each with their own concerns about Donald Trump, shows the potential for harm that his candidacy poses. In the end everyone Liberation News talked to at the protest seemed to agree that whether Trump is just playing politics as a means of bolstering his brand recognition or actually trying to win the presidency, it’s bad news for the United States and bad news for the world.
