Donald Trump Cancels Chicago Rally Due to Protests, Black Twitter Is Thrilled

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Protesters celebrate outside of the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion where Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump cancelled a campaign rally over safety concerns March 11, 2016 in Chicago. The Illinois Republican presidential primary will be held March 15. 

Jonathan Gibby/Getty Images

After altercations in several cities on the campaign trail, Republican front runner Donald Trump canceled his rally in Chicago last night, saying that he “didn’t want to see anybody hurt.”

Trump was slated to speak at the University of Illinois at Chicago just west of downtown Chicago, but thousands of protesters gathered inside and outside of the area, sometimes getting into confrontations with Trump supporters. A large group opposing  Trump taunted those entering the stadium with shouts of “Donald Trump has got to go” (and worse), holding caricaturing Trump as a fascist with a Hitler mustache and even one of him as a baby with girl’s genitalia.

When the announcement was made, the protesters, who filled several sections of the arena, let out an elated cheer, according to the New York Times. Trumps’ many supporters were visibly stunned and some angry, getting into short physical confrontations with protesters, some of which were captured on video and replayed continuously on news stations last night.

Trump called into CNN with Don Lemon several hours after the shut down rally, and had some interesting things to say about why the clashes took place—none of it because of his words or tone.

For the first time, he mentioned young African Americans saying their dissatisfaction with him is about the economy, and that black youth unemployment rate was at 59 percent, although it should be noted that many if not most of the protesters were Mexican American and from Central America, as Chicago has high concentrations of these populations.

“I think we made a wise decision to cancel, even though our freedom of speech was violated totally, we made a decision not to go forward. I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Trump began via phone to CNN. 

“I think this is a divided country and it’s divided among many different groups, and frankly it’s terrible. A lot of people are upset because they haven’t had a salary increase in 12 years. Our jobs are being taken away, our jobs are being sent to Mexico and other places, and our real unemployment rate is probably closer to 25 percent.”

 “I think it’s largely economic, I mean if you look at African-American youth, they have a 59 percent unemployment rate, and I think it’s a largely economic problem, essentially,” he added.

And of course, Trump being Trump says he is not responsible for the violence at his rallies, even though some of his rhetoric on the campaign trail has called for protesters to be “taken out in stretchers.”

“Well I hope my tone is not causing violence, because my basic tone is that of securing our borders and that of having a country of bringing our jobs back, of bringing manufacturing back, and our African American youth, who have a 59 percent unemployment rate, and I will say we’ve had tremendous success with people, I mean it’s a love fest in the rallies themselves.”

All of the presidential candidates weighed in last night, condemning the violence and largely blaming Trump, including Marco Rubio, John Kasich, and biggest opponent Ted Cruz, who went in. 

“But in any campaign, responsibility starts at the top,” said Cruz, according to the Times. “And when you have a campaign that disrespects the voters, when you have a campaign that affirmatively encourages violence, when you have a campaign that is facing allegations of physical violence against members of the press, you create an environment that only encourages this sort of nasty discourse.”

Black Twitter also got in on the action last night, many obviously thrilled with the results of the canceled rally, tweeting under the hashtag #TrumpRally, and sharing videos that had protesters jumping up and down, chanting “We gone be alright!” 

A Chicago police spokesman said that city law enforcement authorities were not consulted and had no role in canceling the event. The spokesman said there had been five arrests, two by the Chicago police, two by the university’s police and one by the Illinois State Police. The fire department said three people, including a police officer, were injured.

Read more at the New York Times.

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