Donald Trump was on a roll and he was not going to let anyone, least of all Latino infiltrators, spoil his triumph.



“This has become a movement,” he exulted from the podium. “The silent majority is back, and we’re going to take our country back ... the word is getting out that we have to stop illegal immigration.”

Thousands of supporters packed into the Phoenix convention center on Saturday roared their approval. Finally here was a candidate who would catch and banish “the illegals”.

Right around then a few pro-immigrant activists hidden in the crowd outed themselves and unfurled a banner: “Stop the hate.”

The defiance lasted just a few seconds before Trump supporters swarmed around them pulling, grabbing and shoving. Security guards intervened and frogmarched the intruders away amid jeers and insults.

Trump’s voice boomed over the commotion. “I wonder if the Mexican government sent them over here. I think so.” The jeers intensified. “Don’t worry,” he reassured the crowd, “we’ll take our country back.” Chants of “USA” erupted.

It was a brief, telling moment in the Republican candidate’s campaign event in Arizona, the highlight of a weekend swing through western states. Instead of cooling it, as Republican leaders have pleaded, the real estate tycoon-turned GOP insurgent dialed up anti-illegal immigrant rhetoric. His supporters adored it.

“He says everything that’s in our hearts. No baloney,” said Mary Przybylo, 75. “He’s got to keep it up. Keep it going.” Others echoed the sentiment. “He’s not afraid to say what we feel,” said Kent Pyper, 47, who runs a printing business. “No one else tells it like it is.”

That perception has made Trump, so often derided as a buffoon, an electric candidate. He has tapped a deep well of anger which is powering a surge in the polls.

The Phoenix rally shone a light on that momentum. It also exposed frailties. Trump’s freewheeling campaign may be sowing the seeds of its own destruction.

The hour-long speech was vintage Trump. An unscripted, rambling mix of jokes, boasts, provocations, policy prescriptions to “make America great again” and tirades against illegal immigrants, Mexico’s government, Democrats, the media, terrorists and especially fellow Republicans.

“Let’s say Jeb Bush is president: ay, ay, ay,” he groaned, eliciting laughs. “How can I be tied with this guy? He’s terrible.”

He mocked Macy’s, ESPN and other business partners who have dumped him, saying he would have the last laugh. “Thousands and thousands of people are cutting up their Macy’s credit cards.”

One moment he bragged about his best-selling books, the next he vowed to zap Islamic State. Then he was talking about trade deals with Japan, Caterpillar trucks, golf balls, phone calls from Paris, Humvees, conversations with his wife, Sino-Russian relations, sanctuary cities, Hillary Clinton and his desire to send Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the US hostage traded for Taliban prisoners, back to Afghanistan.

“I went to the Wharton School of Business,” he noted several times. “I’m, like, a really smart person.”

The press, he said, jabbing a finger at a phalanx of television cameras, were liars. “They’re terrible people. Terrible. Not all of them, but many of them.”

Trump promised to release personal financial records this week, which will clear the way for him to debate rivals in an August 6 televised debate.

If there was a connecting thread it was illegal immigration and how it was draining America’s greatness. The warm-up speakers were Mary Ann Mendoza, whose police officer son Brandon died in a vehicle accident with an undocumented immigrant, and Maricopa county sheriff Joe Arpaio, who lamented that they escaped justice.

Trump introduced Jamiel Shaw, the father of a Los Angeles high school student shot dead by an undocumented Mexican immigrant in 2008.

Trump said he loved Mexico’s people but decried their leaders as cunning manipulators of an “out of control” border. He promised to fine Mexico $100,000 for every person who illegally entered the US. “This has become a movement. This has become a movement because people don’t know what’s happening. We can’t be great if we don’t have a border.”

Every time he bashed illegal immigrants, the 5,000-strong capacity crowd – hundreds had to listen from outside – roared.

Republican leaders concluded after Barack Obama’s victory in 2012 that the party must reach out to Latinos to stand a chance of capturing the White House in 2016. Most of Trump’s rivals have criticised, to varying degrees, his statements about Mexico sending rapists, criminals and diseases into the US.

That leaves the reality television host a clear field to tap a current of anger and resentment among certain white people, rich and poor, Republicans and non-Republicans.

“He’s telling like it is. He’s an American hero,” said Elizabeth Shoemaker, an elderly woman wearing a cowboy hat and holding a TRUMP = TRUTH placard. Marty Hermanson, 54, a former local GOP party chairman in a pinstriped suit, said the candidate was expressing people’s inner feelings. “He’s hit a nerve.”

Why #Trump? Elizabeth Shoemaker: 'Big holes in the fences. They're jumping right over.' pic.twitter.com/SrbiDUujRA — Rory Carroll (@rorycarroll72) July 11, 2015

Supporters ranged from Tammie Malkow-Dunham, 46, a soft-spoken Canadian who resents people skipping the queue for citizenship, to Alice Novoa, a peroxide blonde in a star-and-stripes jacket who ranted about a Mexican plan to use immigrants as fifth columnists to invade and massacre US Christians.

There was also Rick Kral, 73, a retired electrical engineer, fretting about Islamist terrorists flocking through El Paso (“it’s on the internet”), and Diana Brest, 64, an unemployed former insurance worker who feared losing out in the job market to younger, bilingual people. “They need to be escorted off our land.” Brest had been first in line, since 4.45am, to nab a prime spot.

Diana Brest queuing since 4.45am to be first in for #trump. 'Illegals are taking jobs, benefits, medical.' pic.twitter.com/xXHhT4KFIS — Rory Carroll (@rorycarroll72) July 11, 2015

Trump’s unfiltered, unvarnished rhetoric taps the sense that undocumented immigrants are competitors, or cheats, or worse, and that a lily-livered, politically correct Republican party abandoned the fight.

Their zeal has energised Trump’s campaign. But Phoenix also exposed the downsides.

The Republican party of Maricopa county hosted the event but almost the entire state party leadership, including the senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, and governor Doug Ducey, stayed away. Maverick is one thing, outcast another.

The event galvanised a small but spirited Latino response. About a hundred protesters braved searing heat outside the center to chant for hours. Francisca Porchas 33, one of the infiltrators who unfurled the banner inside the hall, emerged seething. “I was pushed and elbowed. It was actually very scary. He’s stirring extremist sentiment.” Jose Patino, 26, who was also jostled, predicted a Latino backlash at the polls. “He’s probably hurting his party and helping the Democrats.”

After Trump left the stage, and the adrenaline of the event ebbed, some supporters conceded doubts about their hero’s long term viability. “Presidential material? Huh. Do I have to answer that?” asked Joe Przybylo, 67, a retired postal worker. “I like the straight talking. It’s from the heart. But, you know, it can be a bit rough. Maybe he needs more work.”