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Presidential candidate Donald Trump took center stage Sunday in the Republican stronghold of Butler County’s West Chester Township and continued his fiery attacks that have drawn record number of supporters nationwide.
Trump stood in an elevated security circle before a largely adoring packed house of more than 1,800 at the Savannah Center banquet center and picked up where he left off from Saturday’s highly publicized campaign speeches in Dayton and later in Kansas City.
And like some his recent rallies, there were shouting protesters, but only two this time, and they were quickly escorted from the center’s auditorium.
Trump was an equal opportunity, verbal flame thrower blasting a variety of targets while promising his campaign slogan to “make America great again.”
He criticized the so-called establishment Republican opposition, illegal immigration, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Common Core, the news media, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.
And he stressed the importance of Ohio’s Tuesday primary vote and predicated “if we can win Ohio, we’re going to run the table folks.”
“You’re going to remember this day,” he said, asking for the crowd to back him Tuesday and calling it “the single greatest vote you ever cast.”
Though there we no major policy announcements or changes from his previous positions, though Trump did take time to counterpunch Kasich, who Saturday in a campaign stop in nearby Sharonville blamed Trump for creating a “toxic environment” in the White House race.
“Your governor here hasn’t won one state yet. And he does this nice routine of (how he wants) to be the grown up in the room,” said Trump, referring to Kasich’s response to criticism of some of Trump’s blunt and cutting debate performances.
“But remember first two debates (last summer), he came at me viciously. He was vicious. But now he is playing the good guy,” Trump said.
Trump also criticized Kasich for “not going to do his job” of governor while out campaigning.
“Ohio has plenty of problems. Your governor (while in Congress) voted for NFTA (North American Free Trade Act passed in 1993). Ohio has never, ever come back from that,” he said.
Trump’s numerous personal attacks on opponents, which besides Kasich are now narrowed down to U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, has deeply split many traditional Republican support bases locally and nationwide.
Some of that has played out in recent weeks with punches, shoving and shouting at Trump rallies between his supporters and protesters.
Friday in Chicago, the Trump counter-demonstration was large enough to shut down an event and forced thousands of his supporters to leave when Trump cancelled his appearance out of safety concerns.
Saturday in Dayton, a man ran toward the stage during Trump’s speech and was wrestled down by the candidate’s Secret Service agents.
The unusual campaign contentiousness hasn’t been limited to shoving and yelling at rallies.
Last week Rubio campaign officials issued a call for his supporters to throw their support behind Kasich in Tuesday’s primary vote as part of an expanding “stop Trump” campaign strategy backed by some GOP leaders.
It was left to Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones to address the unusual arranging of anti-Trump maneuvers among his opponents to thwart him in Ohio.
Jones warned the crowd during his opening speech for the rally that traditional GOP powerbrokers are trying to keep Ohioans from getting “to choose who are president is” and that local Trump backers should oppose “somebody in a smoke-filled room” making that decision for them.
“We cannot let them steal Ohio away from us,” he said.
Jones, who has garnered national attention for his calls to close America’s southern border to better control immigration, introduced and endorsed Trump at the rally in large part because the famed developer shares his views on immigration control.
Sunday’s rally, which included a question-and-answer session at the end, featured only two protesters.
Outside the hall, according to West Chester Police, were about 500 protesters with about 300 Trump backers who had tickets to the event but couldn’t squeeze in.
No arrests were reported.
“Wow, this is great. Why didn’t we get a bigger place?” said Trump surveying the crowd.
“The other candidates don’t have this problem.”
This article contains reporting by staff writers Michael D. Clark, Rick McCrabb and Ed Richter.
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