The anti-Trump protesters outnumbered the Trump supporters who saw fit to engage them as they left the San Diego Convention Center downtown following Trump's rally. | AP Photo Clashes erupt on San Diego streets after Trump rally

SAN DIEGO — Donald Trump rallied thousands of supporters here Friday afternoon but left town just as hundreds of police officers were struggling to contain escalating skirmishes between his backers and the thousands of protesters who filled the streets.

At least three people were arrested after protesters and Trump supporters engaged in fistfights and shouting matches and hurled water bottles, eggs and vitriol despite police efforts to keep them separated.


It was the second time in three days that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee left violent protests in his wake, presaging what could turn out to be a five-month general election campaign marred by rising civil unrest and social protest. The candidate called the protesters "thugs" in a tweet late Friday night.

The anti-Trump protesters, a group that at one point swelled to some 7,000 people, outnumbered the Trump supporters who saw fit to engage them as they left the San Diego Convention Center downtown following Trump's rally. Many on both sides, however, appeared eager to escalate tensions.

A circle of protesters cheered loudly as they surrounded a man holding up a red "Make America Great Again" hat as he used a cigarette lighter to set it aflame.

"F--- Trump! F--- Trump!" they roared.

"Go home! Go home!" answered the Trump supporters.

At one point, police officers wearing riot gear were able to separate the two factions on opposite sides of a street. On one side where a man held a Confederate flag over his head, a gathering of Trump supporters taunted protesters across the street, several of whom held Mexico flags aloft, with chants of "Build that wall!"

It was a predictable scene here, especially following days of violent skirmishes in other cities where Trump has held rallies, amid Trump's first visit to the nation's eighth largest city, home to a 30 percent Hispanic population and just miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

For most of the afternoon, the protests outside were peaceful.

The protesters gathered outside the entrance of the cavernous convention center, many of them waving flags from Mexico and other countries, some holding signs and effigies of Trump, and shouted into the faces of a wall of police officers who formed a barrier around the building and the thousands of Trump supporters as they came and went.

"Racists, this way," shouted Javier, a 25-year-old from San Diego, as Trump supporters passed by him on their way inside.

Mark Moreno, standing nearby, held a sign that read: "Donald Trump, you have chosen to offend me." A Hillary Clinton supporter and a Native American, he was motivated to join Friday's protests by Trump's recent use of the term "Pocahontas" to insult Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

"Words matter," Moreno, 52, said. "When you're running for president, the words you say on television and at your rallies when millions of people are watching have a big impact. And he's so careless with his words. He's making everything so offensive when it doesn't need to be."

Many of the protesters marched from nearby Chicano Park, waving flags and chanting, "We didn't cross the border," they yelled. "The border crossed us." Intermittently, a chorus of people shouting "F--- Trump" added to the din.

Russ Holm, wearing sunglasses and a navy blue Make America Great Again hat, shook his head after passing by the protesters on his way into the rally.

"I support peaceful protest, but it seems a bit contradictory what they're saying," said Holm, 31. "They're against hate, but what they're saying is hateful, too. They're calling him a racist, and he's not. He's for legal immigration, just not illegal immigration, which we need to put a stop to because there are hard-working Americans who can't get a job because of it."

Many Trump backers, who stood in a line stretching several blocks to get into the rally venue, didn't give much thought to the assembled protesters.

"It's fine if other people have different opinions, people with less education," said Wiliam Turner, 59, a Trump supporter from Santee, a San Diego suburb.

Although a few Trump supporters and journalists were caught up in minor skirmishes with protesters, police officers generally succeeded for the first several hours in keeping the peace. Away from the activity, some Trump backers engaged the protesters in calm discussions and political debates.

Janice Keffaber, 74, sat nearby with her street theater group, the "Ground Zero Players," all dressed in black and wearing red bandanas. Taking it all in, she marveled at Trump's ability to continually defy political gravity despite a litany of statements that have offended so many different constituencies.

"It's horrifying to think he could be president of this country," Keffaber said. "And it's frustrating that he seems to be Teflon no matter what he does or says. But we still have to come out and do this. We can't just let it go without standing up to it. That's what Germany did."