Supporters and protesters came upon the small town of Lynden, where presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump held a rally on Saturday at the Northwest Washington Fair and Event Center.
State troopers and event staff monitored the venue, and turned away hundreds of Trump supporters as the venue reached capacity of several thousand people.
More than 200 anti-Trump protestors peacefully demonstrated before and after the event, repeating chants like “love trumps hate” and “si se puede.”
McKenna Marsh, 16, from Ferndale, north of Bellingham, was angered to tears by the amount of support for Trump in Lynden.
“They have nothing to lose. If anything, they have more to gain,” said Marsh about Trump’s supporters. “We’re losing everything. This is our family, these are our friends. [His supporters] don’t understand that.”
Dozens of protesters also swarmed State Route 539 in an effort to block the candidate, but he took a different route to the venue, according to KOMO News. Three people were arrested, the station reported.
Anti-Trump protesters are blocking the highway at SR 539 and River Road near Lynden. #TrumpWA #KOMONews pic.twitter.com/kGdRyL36wZ
— KOMO News (@komonews) May 7, 2016
Inside the event center, fans cheered as Trump addressed his plans to build a wall on the Mexican border and praised the politicians who have endorsed him. They booed as he mentioned Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, denounced Syrian refugees moving to Washington state and criticized the media for misrepresenting his campaign.
Trump also said that he would win Washington and Oregon in the general election, according to the Bellingham Herald. Both states haven’t voted for a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
“Trump had a lot of good things to say,” said Zach Kaczmarek, who traveled from Puyallup to attend the rally and show his support for Trump. “Whether he delivers or not is yet to be determined.”
Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee after Republicans John Kasich and Ted Cruz dropped out of the race last week, also held a rally in Spokane on Saturday.
Lynden is near the Canadian border — one of four land-route U.S.-Canada border crossings in Western Washington.
Trump skipped Seattle — his campaign said King County denied a permit to hold a rally at Boeing Field; King County says the campaign never provided requested safety information.
Several Seattle community leaders on Friday denounced Trump ahead of the event.
This post has been removed in accordance with our comment policy.
This post has been removed in accordance with our comment policy.