PORTLAND, Maine — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump brought more of his bombast and what some consider racist comments to his rally on Thursday in Portland, where he was met by an enthusiastic capacity crowd at Merrill Auditorium.
Several Trump supporters said the unconventional candidate needs to tone down his rhetoric if he is to win the presidency in November.
“I read part of his book,” said Ryan Dobbins, a Trump supporter who traveled to the Portland rally from South Paris. “In one section of it he basically talks about how bad publicity is better than no publicity. I think sometimes he goes a little too far, but this is all in his plan.”
A large contingent of protesters gathered outside Portland City Hall hours before the rally. They chanted, waved signs and threw verbal taunts at hundreds of Trump supporters who were waiting in line. Police officers stood among them.
Ashley Shauer, a tourist from Virginia, stood across the street, alternately observing the scene and reading a few pages from a worn copy of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.”
“This is history,” said Shauer. “I just thought I’d come over and see what people had to say. It’s pretty civil and people are engaged. I think it’s good.”
Cindy Brown, a Trump supporter from Portland, was walking her dog near the auditorium and wishing she’d secured a ticket to the rally. She said she wishes Trump would tone it down but that in the end the personal nature of his arguments will lead to his election.
“He’s not sensitive by any means about what he says,” said Brown. “However, when he does speak, I think he’s speaking from the heart.”
Trump’s more than hourlong speech offered Mainers a third in-person taste this year of his foundational campaign image: A portrait of an America that is divided, failing and besieged with immigrants who together comprise a pool of would-be terrorists.
“We don’t know where these people are,” he said. “This could be the great Trojan horse of all time. They’re coming in.”
At another point he said, “We’re letting people from terrorist nations get in. … We’re dealing with animals.”
There also were explicit references to Maine’s Somali community: “Maine is a major destination for Somali refugees,” he said. “They’re coming from among the most dangerous” countries.
Those comments drew immediate and passionate condemnation from Maine’s immigrant community.
Elmuatz Abdelrahim, a co-founder of the New Mainers Political Action Committee, said that Trump is correct to say America is letting in immigrants from dangerous countries, but that this should prompt sympathy not fear.
“The danger there is part of why most people have immigrated from there. There’s war. There’s persecution. People suffered a lot, and it was mainly people who were advocating for democracy back in their country,” said Abdelrahim, who immigrated to the United States in 2001 to escape famine, civil war and genocide in Sudan.
Abdelrahim said that Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric and call to ban Muslims from entering the country serves to support enemies of the United States.
“It’s a very effective recruitment tool for ISIS and all of those crazy organizations,” said the Lewiston resident. “He’s just helping that narrative.”
Abdelrahim also said Trump’s anti-immigrant tone is one that he and other refugees have heard before.
“I don’t think the rhetoric we hear from Donald Trump is that different from the rhetoric we heard from dictators governing our countries back home,” Abdelrahim said.
Though many in the crowd said they were longtime Republicans, there were some Democrats. A handful of people cheered when Trump asked if there were any Bernie Sanders supporters in the crowd. Robert LaRosa, a registered Democrat from Waldoboro, was one of them.
“This will be my first time voting Republican,” he said. “I’m not too fond of what’s going on with the [Democratic National Committee] and them railroading Bernie Sanders,” he said. “Both Bernie and Trump are both kind of outside the establishment coming in, and I think that’s a pretty important piece of the political process. Derailing Sanders like that was just unfortunate.”
Herb Dobbins of Windham said Trump is conducting his campaign exactly right — including distancing himself from the traditional wing of the Republican Party.
“It isn’t the establishment that got him where he is. It’s me and him and him and him,” said Dobbins, pointing to some Trump supporters he was standing with. “As far as I’m concerned, the establishment can get on board or find a nice warm place to spend eternity.”
BDN writer Jake Bleiberg contributed to this report.
