Eleven supporters of former President Donald Trump have been hospitalized for heat-related symptoms after waiting in line to hear the presumptive GOP nominee speak at an event Thursday in Arizona.
Trump is headlining a Turning Point USA event at Dream City Church in Phoenix, where temperatures soared to 110 degrees around 1:30 p.m. as droves of his supporters waited outside, according to local news reports.
The event in a pivotal battleground state marks his first campaign event since he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records over hush money payments paid to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
As Trump took to stage he touted that there were ‘thousands of people outside.’
At the immigration-focused event, the ex-president prompted a ‘bulls***’ chant, as he used the curse word to refer to President Joe Biden’s new executive order on the border.
‘I don’t like saying the word bull**** in front of these beautiful children,’ Trump said with a grin.
Members of the crowd said it instead.
Biden’s order suspended asylum guarantees that traditionally allowed anyone who made it onto U.S. soil to apply – a policy in line more with what Trump has backed.
Still, the former president was not impressed.
‘If Joe Biden truly wanted to sign an executive order to stop the invasion, he only needs a single sentence—it would say, “I hereby immediately reinstate every single border policy of a gentleman named Donald J. Trump,”‘ Trump said.
The Turning Point USA ‘Chase the Vote Town Hall’ event was set up for Trump to take questions – giving the ex-president additional ammunition to take on Biden, pointing to the Democrat’s rare press conferences.
‘I’m not like Joe, tell me who’s going to – He’s got a press conference that lasts for about two minutes and he goes like this, he’s reading a card, “umm NBC Jim, Jim,” and then they ask him a question and then he picks up the same paper and he reads the answer,’ Trump said. ‘They never do that with me.’
‘Is anybody going to be watching the debate with this character?’ Trump then added.
Trump and Biden agreed to face-off in two debates in the lead-up to the November election, starting with one on June 27 hosted by CNN and moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
‘Does anybody know him, Fake Tapper?’ Trump asked, then calling Bash ‘another beauty.’
He said that the Biden campaign wanted the debates to be ‘seated’ and ‘short’ and Trump said he agreed to them anyway.
‘We should have many debates frankly,’ the ex-president said – before moving back onto the topic of immigration.
When it got to the Q&A portion – which Trump said he seldom does because it can get a little bit ‘sloppy’ – he was asked how to stop drugs pouring into the country.
‘You’re a good looking guy, look at that guy, looks like a banker from Wall Street,’ Trump commenter when a questioner asked if his children could have the same kind of life that he had.
Trump talked about how he planned to bulk up law enforcement.
When another man asked about border security – and people coming in from ‘dangerous’ countries, Trump segued to talking about how he planned to place tariffs on China.
He talked about how it was easier to ‘stop it at the source’ then have a ‘battle at the border’ claiming that Chinese President Xi Jinping would be agreeable to stopping the illicit fentanyl trade if Trump was in the White House.
At one point Trump pulled out props after a woman asked about high grocery prices.
He showed the audience normal Tic Tacs and then a tiny version and said that’s what inflation has done.
One woman, who brought her baby along, pointed out that where she lived in northern Arizona was more than an hour away from the closest trauma hospital and asked Trump what he would do to fix that.
‘Well, we are going to be helping rural America,’ he answered. ‘You know rural America votes for Trump, there’s nobody that’s going to take that away and we’ll be helping.’
He said he ‘started a process’ to get more hospitals built ‘and ‘I’m going to keep that going,’ he added, before moving on to the final question.
The concluding question was again about high prices, especially hitting senior citizens, with the woman asking what Trump could do about it.
‘Vote Trump,’ he answered.