BURLINGTON, Vermont — This is Bernie Sanders country, and Donald Trump knows it.

This picture-perfect town that came to be known as the "People's Republic of Burlington" elected Sanders, an avowed socialist, as mayor four times. The headquarters for the Vermont senator's presidential campaign are a short walk away from the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts where Trump spoke to supporters Thursday night. This state has voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election since 1992.

But Trump is here nonetheless, followed by a throng of reporters and photographers and met by a slew of mostly-liberal protesters who have called him a fascist, a racist and a fearmongerer.

Trump's campaign distributed more than 20,000 tickets for the campaign rally at the Flynn Center which only holds 1,400 seats, according to police. "If Phish was holding a free concert at the Flynn and gave away 20,000 free tickets, we would cancel the event out of public safety concerns," Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo told the Burlington Free Press ahead of the event, adding that the department was accommodating "because political speech is the very essence of the First Amendment."

The campaign though did its own crowd control, going so far as to essentially require a loyalty test to enter. Some who refused to declare their allegiance to Trump's campaign were turned away at the door.

Trump staff asking if you're a Trump supporter at the door. If no? Turned away. Tim Farr was one. (Vid 1/2) pic.twitter.com/TNfD4jPCoO — Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) January 7, 2016

Despite all that, Trump is at ease here in Burlington, where he says the air is "so nice and clean." There's snow on the ground but it's not too cold, and he's proud of the line of supporters that started forming in the early hours of Thursday.

"I went outside. There's like 20,000 people, we can't get 'em in," Trump says proudly. "So we are very, very lucky tonight."

Later, he adds that "they took some seats out so we could get more people in. "Great people up here, it's amazing," he says.

While Vermont votes on March 1, one of the so-called "Super Tuesday" primaries, this town, this state, probably won't be in Trump's corner if he becomes the Republican nominee. And Trump knows that, too.

"When we said we're gonna come up here, a lot of people said why," Trump says. Other candidates, he adds are "afraid to come up here because it has a tendency to be...a little bit liberal."

The crowd boos.

"I thought it would be a nice soft evening. We'd have 500, 600 people. We'll sit around a little fireside and we'll talk and we'll have some fun," he says.

A protestor yells as she is escorted by security out of the audience during an address by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign stop at the Flynn Center of the Performing Arts in Burlington, Vt., Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016. Image: Charles Krupa/Associated Press

The crowds here though, are not so quiet. This is no Trumpian fireside chat. Burlington played host to one of the most volatile Trump rallies yet with Trump's characteristic bombast and swagger met by equally forceful, repeated protests.

These interruptions have not been uncommon at Trump's events lately, as Trump is quick to admit. But here they come into sharper focus. While some protesters are ready to be led out, shrugging their jackets back on as they are singled out in the crowd, others escorted away claim to have done nothing wrong.

Trump staffers and crowd pointing out people they think are protestors. Like wearing a Scarlet Letter. “I didn’t do anything!” woman says. — Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) January 8, 2016

The first protest comes early as a man wearing a "Dump Trump" sandwich board is escorted away from the event. The second comes less than ten minutes later, from the balcony.

"Fuck you, Trump," a protester yells as he is escorted away.

"Throw them out," Trump shouts, before telling the crowd "Isn't it exciting?"

But the protests kept going.

There are the two woman who stand to yell and call Trump a racist. There are the obvious Bernie ilk, who shed their winter jackets to display Sanders campaign shirts.

Donald Trump: "We all like Bernie. Do we like Bernie?" Crowd: Nooooo! Guy in the crowd shouts: "Bernie Whooooo?" — Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) January 8, 2016

It takes some time before Trump laces into Vermont's favorite son, though scheduling the rally here itself was quite a provocation.

"Oh I would love to run against Bernie," Trump declares far into his speech. "That would be a dream come true."

He tests the crowd, asking them, "do we like Bernie?" Apparently sensing a satisfactory climate, he reminds his audience of the August event where Sanders was shut down by Black Lives Matters protesters.

"When they took over that microphone that night screaming at him, he was petrified," Trump says. "I lost so much respect for Bernie. We can't let anybody take over our mic. We can't let it happen."

The home stretch of the speech goes off without a hitch. The protests thinned, and Trump drew applause from the crowd for his tough talk on guns. Vermont, as Sanders himself has noted, has a high level of gun ownership compared with other states in the Northeast. Guns here are mainly used for recreation.

"I will get rid of gun free zones in schools. And on military bases, my first day it gets signed. There's no more gun free zones," Trump says.

In the final minutes, the crowd is his. Trump is, as he likes to say, winning.

"We're going back to sanity in this country. We're going back to strength in this country. We're going back to intelligence and we're going back to common sense. We are going to make America great again."

The crowd took a while to break up. The true believers were hoping for a glimpse or perhaps just one more selfie.

As they filed up the carpeted aisles of the auditorium, one dejected fan stopped and looked at the rows filled with the reporters.

"Trump has left the building," he said.

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