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Fights break out between Trump supporters and protesters after a US flag is torched while traffic comes to a standstill amid angry scenes as the President arrives for Beverly Hills fundraiser

Trump arrived to Los Angeles on Air Force One for a fundraising visit on Tuesday

Protesters greeted the President in Beverly Hills as he enjoyed a $5m dinner

Furious brawls broke out as anti-Trump demonstrators burned a US flag

Traffic came to a halt in the city and a Trump baby blimp flew over Palo Alto

By Ross Ibbetson For Mailonline, 18 September 2019

Street brawls broke out last night as protesters burned the Stars and Stripes during President Donald Trump’s $15million fundraising visit to Los Angeles.

There were furious skirmishes outside the Beverly Hills Hotel on Tuesday when anti-Trump demonstrators were set upon while trying to set the US flag on fire.

Riot police were deployed to deal with the violence and a massive baby blimp of the President flew over Palo Alto as he met with wealthy Republicans to pick up funds for his 2020 re-election bid.

The usual traffic chaos during the LA rush hour was dialed up as joyous Trump supporters and raging self-styled anti-fascists followed Trump’s movements.



President Donald Trump arrives at Los Angeles International Airport to attend a fundraiser on Tuesday



Los Angeles Police officers patrol the ramps over the traffic on the Harbor Freeway for the visit of the President

Officers were forced to separate the two groups and detained some of the more violent members, but did not make any arrests, CBS reported.

Trump supporter, Gregg Donovan, told the broadcaster: ‘I was very disappointed in both sides. I took a neutral stance. I just stood there with my sign the whole time, but the burning of the flag really hurt.’

‘There’s not been a president in living history that is as unpopular in the state of California as Trump,’ said Mike Madrid, a GOP political consultant who is an outspoken Trump critic. ‘But our money spends the same as everyone else’s.’

Trump kicked off his moneymaking with a $3million Bay Area luncheon, to be followed by a $5million Beverly Hills dinner at the home of real estate developer Geoffrey Palmer.

He’ll bring in an additional $7million on Wednesday with a breakfast in Los Angeles and luncheon in San Diego before he visits a section of the border wall.

About 100 protesters lined the road about a mile from Trump’s luncheon site in Portola Valley, with demonstrators inflating giant Baby Trump and Trump Chicken balloons.

Republican National Committee member Harmeet Dhillon of California said about 400 guests attended the fundraiser at the home of Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, where the president spoke for about 45 minutes then took questions from the crowd.

Trump tweeted a cheery message as he departed New Mexico on Tuesday to fly to the state: ‘Just departed New Mexico for California, where we are delivering results!’ The tweet included statistics about the state’s unemployment rate and job creation.



An anti-Trump demonstrator can be seen in footage lighting the Stars and Stripes prompting a furious response by nearby Trump supporters



Two men scuffle on the sidewalk in Beverly Hills as the LAPD move in to break them apart



A Trump supporter holds a placard with the President’s new unofficial slogan for 2020: ‘Keeping America Great!’

Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump got in some fresh digs about the state’s problem with homelessness, saying, ‘We can’t let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves by allowing what’s happening.’

‘The people of San Francisco are fed up, and the people of Los Angeles are fed up. And we’re looking at it, and we’ll be doing something about it,’ he added.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a Democrat, said ahead of Trump’s arrival that he hoped the president would work with the city to end homelessness. He said he had not been invited to meet with the president.

California was an incubator for the modern conservative movement that swept the state’s former governor, Ronald Reagan, into the White House in 1980.

But demographic changes and an influx of new residents have helped drastically rework the political contours of the country’s most populated state, with the former GOP stronghold of Orange County now home to more registered Democrats than Republicans.

For Republicans, who have been resigned to political irrelevance at the state level, a donation to Trump can amount to its own form of protest.



Angry protester shout slogans while waiting for the President to arrive in Beverly Hills

A Donald Trump supporter carries a flag as he waits for the arrival of President Donald Trump

‘By showing up to a fundraiser deep in the belly of the beast, one is saying: “I don’t care what the liberal politicians are saying and I want to show my support for him publicly,”‘ said Dhillon, an ardent Trump supporter who said she lined up four tables of donors for the Silicon Valley event.

She said the president’s stopover delivered a jolt of energy for California Republicans, who live in a state where Democrats dominate state politics.

‘It’s been amazing for morale. All the California Republicans … left energized,’ Dhillon said.

California has long been a key fundraising hotbed for politicians of both parties, which have relied on the entertainment industry and wealthy industry heads to finance their political ambitions.

But under Trump, the run-of-the-mill fundraising trip has taken on a complicating dimension because of his harsh criticism of the state’s immigration laws and its forest management practices, which he blamed for fatal wildfires.

Angry protester shout slogans while waiting for the President to arrive in Beverly Hills

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Angry protester shout slogans while waiting for the President to arrive in Beverly Hills

Protesters hold a banner as they and pro-Trump supporters wait for the arrival of President Donald Trump in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills,

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Protesters hold a banner as they and pro-Trump supporters wait for the arrival of President Donald Trump in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills,

Earlier this month Trump lashed out at ‘Will and Grace’ TV star Debra Messing after she tweeted that attendees of the Trump’s California fundraisers should be outed publicly.

Trump tweeted back: ‘I have not forgotten that when it was announced that I was going to do The Apprentice, and when it then became a big hit, helping NBC’s failed lineup greatly, (at)DebraMessing came up to me at an Upfront & profusely thanked me, even calling me ‘Sir.’ How times have changed!’

Trump fans greet the President as he arrives in Los Angeles

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Trump fans greet the President as he arrives in Los Angeles

In August, Trump took aim at the state’s massive film industry, calling Hollywood ‘very dangerous for our country.’

‘Hollywood is really terrible. You talk about racist – Hollywood is racist,’ he said.

That’s contributed to heightened security concerns surrounding the president’s visit.

In downtown Los Angeles, a few dozen demonstrators gathered for an anti-Trump rally organized by social activists.

‘We don’t want him bringing his hate to Los Angeles,’ said Frankie Jester, 27. ‘We know his rhetoric and there’s no place for it here.’

Overall, Trump continues to rake in cash more than a year out from the November 2020 contest, with his campaign and the Republican National Committee pulling in more than $210million since the start of 2019, Federal Election Commission records show.

That’s more than all the current Democrats seeking to replace him raised combined during that period.

The visit this week marks Trump’s fourth to the state during his presidency. He is set to visit a section of the border wall on Wednesday in the San Diego-Tijuana area before returning home to Washington.

Trump plans to visit two of the earlier wall projects funded on his watch.

Last month, the administration completed 14 miles of steel bollards up to 30 feet high, except for a small stretch where homes in Tijuana, Mexico, blocked the construction path, triggering bilateral talks about whether to knock them down.

Money is seen in the back pocket of U.S. President Donald Trump as he boards Air Force One at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, California on Tuesday



Protesters hold a banner as they and pro-Trump supporters wait for the arrival of President Donald Trump in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel.