Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Trump Boasts of New York Win in Maryland

BERLIN, Md. (CN) — Fresh off his rout in New York, reality-television-star-turned-political-freight-train Donald Trump told supporters stuffed into a hot high school gymnasium Wednesday night that his team is looking toward November.

"We're going to beat crooked Hillary," Trump told the 1,300 supporters who camped out to get into the crowded gym at Stephen Decatur High School in Berlin, a small town on Maryland's Eastern Shore, a conservative pocket in a traditionally liberal state.

Thousands more showed up but were either ushered into overflow rooms, where they watched Trump speak on big screens, or kept outside of the building along with the protesters.

Inside the gym, it was business as usual for the real estate mogul. After taking his shots at his Republican opponents Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, as well as Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, Trump sprinted through the platform that has earned scorn from the opposition and Republican brass alike.

He touched on jobs, illegal immigration, tax reform, the Islamic State and corporate inversion, but the crowd kept returning to the much-heralded wall on the Mexico-United States border, a concept Trump said earned him the endorsement of the National Border Patrol Council, the union backing Border Patrol agents.

"Build that wall! Build that wall!" the crowd shouted.

"Don't worry," Trump said. "We will."

Any skirmishes within the building, a problem that has plagued the Trump campaign from the beginning, were quietly handled by police and security. A small group of Hispanic students wearing Mexico soccer jerseys were escorted out by police, though it was unclear if they were disrupting the speech.

As for Trump, the candidate had plenty to celebrate, having just the night before collected 60 percent of the vote in the coveted New York primary election.

"We had a great night," Trump told his crowd. "The media said we couldn't do 50, even though the other two guys couldn't do anything."

Trump recounted his own experience voting Tuesday: "Stiff, stiff, Trump. I got to vote for myself for president. How cool is that?"

The sign-waving crowd was nothing short of enthusiastic about their candidate, but tentative with the media.

"He says what he feels," said a man identifying himself only as a bartender. "Everybody else is bought a paid for."

As for the media, the press was sectioned off in the back of the room behind metal barricades watched over by police. After the speech, which lasted just over an hour, media personnel were not allowed to leave for about a half hour. A member of the Trump campaign stood by the barricade and declined to comment other than to say, "the boss is out in the hallway shaking hands of the folks in the overflow room."

Outside protesters clashed with the Trump supporters who had been unable to enter.

Natalee Dehart, a friend who stood outside taking pictures of the brouhaha, described the protesters as "peaceful" and "a good collective."

"The Trump supporters are no longer being let in so there is a group of college-age students taunting the protesters," she added.

One man unable to get into the event, Dehart sai, used a megaphone to tell protesters, "go back to your daddy's basement and get a job."

Trump currently has 845 delegates in his corner to Cruz's 559. Kasich trails the two with 148.

Though not mathematically eliminated, Cruz's path to the presidency could depend on a contested convention in July when the party will nominate its candidate in Cleveland.

Trump has repeatedly rebuffed his opponents, and, as he told the crowd at Stephen Decatur, "I'm not a politician like Lyin' Ted or Crooked Hillary."

The only moment when he lost his Maryland faithful was when the New Yorker told them that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had endorsed him.

"Do we love Tom Brady," he asked.

He was summarily booed.

Maryland holds its primary election on April 26, a date that also sees Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island voters go to the polls

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...