Calgary Trumps 2020 Campaign Kickoff Attracted Extremists To A City That Hates Trump | HuffPost Latest News - Action.News ABC Action News WestNet-HD Weather Traffic

ORLANDO, Fla. President Donald Trump announced the formal launch of his 2020 reelection campaign Tuesday evening at a rally in Orlando, attracting thousands of supporters including many far-right extremists to a city that mostly detests him.

The presidents fans showed up hours before the rally began, standing outside the Amway Center in the sweltering heat and the pouring rain. Many sported Make America Great Again hats or T-shirts with slogans like Make Democrats Cry Again and Deplorable Lives Matter.

There were also about a dozen men wearing black Fred Perry polo shirts, the uniform of the violent neo-fascist gang the Proud Boys. We are the Proud Boys, baby! one very proud boy yelled into a megaphone, attempting to recruit new members among the MAGA crowd.

When you come out here, its a brotherhood. Its a family. Its like being at a revival, man, Joe Biggs, a Florida-based Proud Boys member, could be heard telling another right-wing activist about the Trump rally.

A short time later, journalists filmed the Proud Boys in much larger numbers as they marched through the streets, chanting, Pinochet did nothing wrong! The slogan, popular among white supremacists, is a reference to former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochets practice of murdering leftists by throwing them out of helicopters.

Large contingent of Proud Boys marching next to the Amway Center, chanting, Pinochet was right, and Roger Stone did nothing wrong. #TrumpInOrlando #TrumpRallyOrlando pic.twitter.com/vFgDyOcq1W

Michael Williams (@michaeldamianw) June 18, 2019","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Michael Williams","author_url":"https://twitter.com/michaeldamianw","cache_age":86400,"description":"Large contingent of Proud Boys marching next to the Amway Center, chanting, Pinochet was right, and Roger Stone did nothing wrong. #TrumpInOrlando #TrumpRallyOrlando pic.twitter.com/vFgDyOcq1W Michael Williams (@michaeldamianw) June 18, 2019\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_hide_thread":{"label":"Hide previous Tweet in conversation thread","value":true}},"provider_name":"Twitter","thumbnail_height":675,"thumbnail_url":"https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1141067844848934912/pu/img/y3hFehDE5ZqkaC1d.jpg","thumbnail_width":1200,"title":"Michael Williams on 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Large contingent of Proud Boys marching next to the Amway Center, chanting, Pinochet was right, and Roger Stone did nothing wrong. #TrumpInOrlando #TrumpRallyOrlando pic.twitter.com/vFgDyOcq1W
Michael Williams (@michaeldamianw) June 18, 2019

The Proud Boys, known for violently attacking leftists themselves, then attempted to confront counterprotesters in downtown Orlando, but they were stopped by police.

The Trump campaign is well aware of the organized participation of Proud Boys rallies merging into Trump events, an unidentified GOP operative told New York Times reporter Trip Gabriel Tuesday night. They dont care. Staff are to treat it like a coalition they cant talk about.

Trumps 2016 campaign and the first 2 years of his presidency have emboldened a far-right, white nationalist movement in the United States, leading to outbreaks of political violence. His 2020 campaign launch Tuesday portended more of the same.

Fascists and conspiracy theorists were not fringe figures among this massive crowd of Trump supporters, but represented a large segment of the people, offering up a sobering look at the voting base the GOP has cultivated for itself. Its why so many people in Orlando, a decidedly liberal city, never wanted this rally here at all.