Donald Trump rallies supporters in deep-blue California: ‘Welcome to Trumpchella’

COACHELLA

President Donald Trump stopped through deep-blue California on Saturday for a campaign appearance intended to link Vice President Kamala Harris to his described failures of the state, including the cost of living, crime and homelessness.

The rally took place in the arid California desert and between other Trump campaign events this weekend in Nevada and Arizona — both swing states crucial to a presidential victory.

Thousands of Trump supporters braved afternoon temperatures that briefly nudged 100 degrees, crowding into one of the sparsely shaded polo fields where the famous Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals are held.

The campaign distributed cold water and set up cooling tents. Some attendees kept cool by draping wet towels around their shoulders while they waited for the former president. Emergency staff were seen providing medical aid to multiple attendees throughout the rally.

Trump took the stage shortly after 5:30 p.m., declared “that sun is hot” and promptly donned one of his signature crimson “Make America Great Again” hats to shield his eyes before settling into a winding 80-minute speech attacking people in the country illegally and his political opponents including Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Adam Schiff.

“Kamala Harris and the radical Democrats have destroyed the great state of California,” Trump said. “It’s a paradise lost.”

The former president in particular needled Democrats on immigration policies and falsely accused Harris of “importing prison gangs” including one that he — again falsely — said has taken over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado.

“Kamala Harris got you into this mess and only Trump is going to get you out of it,” he said. Trump said he would “rescue California” and “put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell out of the country.”

Despite the punishing sun and heat, 52-year-old Angela Brown and her 16-year-old son Denver described the rally as “electric” and “bone-chilling.”

The family, residents of Orange County, showed up early to get seats on the risers behind Trump. They said they had to take breaks to get in the shade but appreciated campaign volunteers who distributed ice and water.

“It’s great” Trump came, Angela said. “Everybody thinks in California, it’s all Democratic but it’s really not.”

Trump promises to come for California environmental policies

Trump criticized Newsom’s climate policies and said he would cancel “on the first day” California’s mandate that all new vehicles sold by 2030 must be powered by electric or renewable energy.

During his first term, Trump targeted the state’s stricter tailpipe emissions, a fight he would likely continue in a second term.

He also poked fun at the delta smelt, an endangered fish species native to the region near Sacramento, where rivers empty into the San Francisco Bay.

“By the way, the delta smelt is doing extremely badly. They have a fish and their way of saving the fish is not to give it water,” he said, arguing at once that California sends too much water into the ocean and yet not enough to protect the smelt.

Trump said he would force California to divert more water to farmland, again threatening to withhold emergency aid from the state if his political opponents do not follow his wishes.

“We’ll say, ‘Gavin, if you don’t do it we’re not giving you any of that fire money we send you all the time,’” he said.

He added: “You’re going to have so much water you’re not going to know what to do with it. Right now you don’t have any water.”

In fact, most of the state’s main reservoirs currently exceed their average historical capacity for October, according to the state’s water dashboard. The largest water sources are all at least half full.

Attacking Harris and Newsom on their home turf

While Trump criticized his opponents and joked with his supporters, other speakers hammered California’s Democratic leaders for the state’s high cost of living and rates of homelessness.

“They’ve turned the most iconic cities in America into the most high-crime, high cost, high tax” places to live,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida.

Republican Rep. Ken Calvert — who is running in a close rematch for a congressional district bordering the rally site — said buying a home and raising a family is becoming increasingly unattainable for working people.

Calvert said Democrats who have led the state’s government for nearly two decades have “turned it into a nightmare.”

Notably absent was Republican Senate candidate Steve Garvey, whose Palm Desert home was just up the road from the rally site. The former baseball star has voted for Trump and plans to again this year but has sought to distance his campaign from the former president, saying he is running against Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff to represent “all Californians” in the Senate.

Onlookers also heard from actor Dennis Quaid, Trump adviser Stephen Miller, former acting Director of National Security Ric Grenell and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is considering a 2026 run for governor.

Former State Senate Democratic leader Gloria Romero, who recently left the “wacko, authoritarian, woke, Democratic Party” said the left’s leaders have “taken Latinos and Latinas for granted.”

California GOP chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson welcomed attendees to “Trumpchella” and touted gains in Republican voter registration in California since 2020 — though the roughly 800,000 new members likely won’t be enough to shift the race to Trump in a state with more than 22 million voters.

“He is looking to make a difference in the next four years as president,” she told reporters the day before the rally. “He can’t do that without a House majority, and the House Majority comes right through California.”