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As Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump clinches more primary victories and emerges as the likely GOP nominee, one thing seems more and more certain: Protesters of color who show up at his rallies and campaign events do so at their own risk.
That there’s been an ugly racial element to Trump’s rise these past few months can’t be denied. The slurs against people from Mexico, the proposal to shut Muslims out of the U.S., the enthusiastic support Trump has received from white supremacists — it’s clear that if you’re a white person who resents the idea of treating nonwhite people as equals, Trump is your candidate of choice. And of course, that’s an attitude that starts with the man himself.
Trump supporters have reportedly told protesters to “clean my hotel room, bitch,” or told them to “go home” while spitting on them.
As the candidate’s momentum grows, these incidents don’t appear to be going away.
“It’s only a matter of time before someone gets killed at future events,” Shaun King, the New York Daily News’ justice writer, wrote on March 2, the day after Trump won seven states and amassed more than 300 delegates in the Super Tuesday contests.
Similar to The Huffington Post’s Islamophobia tracker, we wanted to start a running tally of racist incidents that have taken place at Trump events or otherwise been connected to the GOP front-runner. This isn’t a comprehensive list, so please let us know what we’ve missed — we’ll be updating this post as needed.
Defenders of Trump might dismiss any one of these events as an unfortunate outlier. But it’s important to see that these aren’t isolated incidents. Rather, they form a pattern — one that’s deeply unsettling.
Dozens Of Black Protesters Kicked Out Of Trump Rally For No Apparent Reason
On Feb. 29, about 30 black students at Georgia’s Valdosta State University were standing silently on gymnasium bleachers at a Trump rally, waiting for the candidate to begin speaking. They were then asked to leave, according to Jennifer Jacobs, a Des Moines Register reporter who was at the event.
Trump’s campaign denied that it asked Secret Service agents to remove the students. “There is absolutely zero truth to that,” campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks told CNN.
But one tearful student said she suspected it happened simply because “we’re a group of black people.”
Grown Men Shove A Young Black Female Protester
Protesters showed up at a March 1 Trump rally in Louisville, Kentucky, leading supporters to grow angry, especially when Trump repeatedly called to “get them out of here.”
Some supporters proceeded to forcibly remove a young black female protester after shoving her.
Shiya Nwanguma, a University of Louisville student, said that Trump supporters hurled racist and sexist obscenities at her.
“They were pushing and shoving at me, cursing at me, yelling at me, called me every name in the book,” Nwanguma said later in a video posted to a Facebook group called “Empty the Seats at Tuesday’s Trump Rally.” “They were disgusting and dangerous.”
Supporters Beat Up A Black Lives Matter Protester, And Trump Was OK With It
During a November rally in Birmingham, Alabama, Trump supporters physically assaulted a black protester who’d reportedly been chanting “Black lives matter.”
“At least a half-dozen attendees shoved and tackled the protester, a black man, to the ground as he refused to leave the event,” CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond said. “At least one man punched the protester and a woman kicked him while he was on the ground.”
The following day, Trump implied that the attackers were justified.
“Maybe [the protester] should have been roughed up,” he mused. “It was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”
Pro-Immigration Protester Forcefully Dragged Out
Protesters at Trump’s first official campaign rally in Miami last October were met with revved-up supporters, who chanted “USA! USA!” as one protester, Ariel Rojas, was violently kicked and dragged to the ground.
During his speech, Trump alluded to the protesters several times, recommending that supporters “get ’em out, but don’t hurt ’em.”
Supporter Spat On Immigration Activist
As immigration activists disrupted an October Trump rally in Richmond, Virginia, Trump supporters retaliated by yelling “Go back where you came from!”
One man grew so angry that he reportedly spat in the face of a protester, shouting “Fuck you” several times.
Two Men Beat Up A Homeless Latino Man, Invoking Trump’s Immigration Policies
Last August, two men walking home from a baseball game in Boston beat up a homeless Latino man and urinated on him. According to police, the men were saying things like “Donald Trump was right” and “All these illegals need to be deported,” according to police.
Trump called the incident “terrible” and said he “would never condone violence” (this was a few months before he condoned violence). However, he did appear to offer at least a partial defense of the assailants.
“I will say, the people that are following me are very passionate,” Trump said. “They love this country, they want this country to be great again.”
Editor’s note: Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
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