Protesters gather during a Donald Trump campaign rally in Fountain Hills, Ariz., on Saturday. | AP Photo Trump rallies Arizona supporters despite protests Trump is campaigning in the state ahead of its upcoming primary.

Donald Trump rallied supporters in Arizona on Saturday, holding an event outside Phoenix despite a nearby confrontation between police and protesters.

Law enforcement officials and protesters faced off in a tense standoff ahead of the rally, as anti-Trump demonstrators blocked a highway leading to the event. Police repeatedly called for the protesters to disperse and threatened to forcibly remove them for the highway, according to multiple media reports. The demonstrators, many of whom held signs protesting Trump’s words and policies on undocumented immigrants, mostly decamped in a march toward the rally.


Trump is campaigning ahead of Arizona's Tuesday primary, where he, Ted Cruz and John Kasich vie for the state's 58 winner-take-all delegates. Trump is expected to win, though the state has not been as thoroughly polled as previous contests.

His speech Saturday rolled through familiar talking points, including the promise of a Mexico-funded wall along the southern border, questions about Cruz's integrity, attacks on the media and a promise of new trade policies that would bring jobs back to the U.S.

"We have a silent majority that's no longer so silent, it's now the loud, noisy majority," Trump told a cheering crowd.

Trump promised to beat Hillary Clinton in a general election, and ripped Mitt Romney for losing to President Barack Obama in 2012, saying he "choked like a dog."

Adding to the drama of the protests was the presence of controversial local Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who supports Trump's candidacy and is hosting him at the rally, but who — in his law enforcement capacity — is also overseeing security for the event . During the rally, speaking onstage alongside former Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, Arpaio accused the protesters of attempting to intimidate Trump supporters — and said that Trump would not be intimidated. In his remarks, Arpaio said three protesters had been arrested.

Earlier this month, protests outside a scheduled Trump rally in Chicago prompted the campaign to cancel the event. Trump is scheduled to hold a second Arizona rally on Saturday, this time in Tucson.