Locals Push Back on Coachella Officials Calling Trump a ‘Threat’

Local officials in Coachella, California, who support former President Donald Trump are pushing back at elected officials who say he is not welcome and who describe him as a “threat.”

Area news outlet KESQ reported Monday that Trump will be speaking at a rally in the area on Saturday evening. Supporters are expected to come from California and swing-state Arizona, as well as from the local community.

KESQ noted that Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez, Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA), Coachella Councilmember Frank Figueroa, and Indio Councilmember Waymond Fermon — who once worked security for Trump at a local casino — are all opposing Trump’s visit. Fermon called Trump a “threat to our needs and to democracy itself.”

Mayor Hernandez said: “We don’t know why Trump is visiting near Coachella, but we know he wasn’t invited by the people who live here. He ain’t like us.”

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco countered: “”Mr. Hernandez, better take a look around, because he obviously was invited by the people that live there and work there, and maybe he’s going to be in line for an awakening in the future, because this constant divide and this constant rhetoric that we have going on is not good for the country.”

Cathedral City Councilmember Ernesto Gutierrez is also backing Trump’s visit.

Republicans have said that language such as the word “threat” to describe Trump has contributed to an environment in which there have been two assassination attempts against Trump in the past few months.

The outrage expressed by local officials in the Coachella area recalls the claim by then-San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo in 2016 that Trump was to blame for his own supporters being attacked by rioters outside a Trump rally, because of Trump’s own supposedly offensive rhetoric.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.