Trump turns up the heat at Fairfield rally

Donald Trump speaks at Sacred Heart University Saturday. Donald Trump speaks at Sacred Heart University Saturday. Photo: Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 60 Caption Close Trump turns up the heat at Fairfield rally 1 / 60 Back to Gallery

FAIRFIELD — Donald Trump confounded the tea leaf readers with a rare general election cameo Saturday in Connecticut, where the real estate mogul became the first Republican since Bob Dole in 1996 to make a foray into the true blue state this late on the political calendar.

It came on the hottest day of the year in the state and just 48 hours before a $33,400-per-plate fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in Greenwich.

There was thunder and lightning — not just from Trump — during his visit to Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. A passing storm cell forced thousands of Trump’s supporters to take cover in the school’s steamy basketball arena after the presidential hopeful’s rally.

“We’re making a big move for the state of Connecticut,” a late-arriving Trump told a capacity crowd.

Twice in April during the primary race, Trump visited Connecticut, where he romped over Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. But this is new territory for Republicans and Trump, who has been second-guessed by the pundits for diverting time and resources from the battlegrounds of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, where he is trailing Clinton.

Connecticut GOP Chairman J.R. Romano, a Derby native, dismissed the detractors.

“Same guys that were giving Mitt Romney advice,” Romano said. “This electoral map may look a little different than what we’re used to.”

The William H. Pitt Center, the university’s basketball arena, felt more like a sauna, with 4,000 to 5,000 people wreaking havoc on the air conditioning. Outside, an overflow crowd listened to an unscripted Trump hurl insults at “crooked Hillary and Connecticut’s governor, Dannel P. Malloy, while protesters dotted a nearby intersection.

“By the way, the fact that it’s 190 degrees in this room makes me appreciate the people of Connecticut even more,” Trump said. “It’s like a sweatsuit I’m wearing.”

His voice ironically punctuated by thunderbolts, Trump mocked the first name of the governor, asking if Malloy goes by Dan or Dannel. He lambasted the second-term Democrat for the loss of General Electric’s Fairfield headquarters to Boston.

“How did you lose General Electric?” Trump said. “You have a bad governor.”

A woman with a “Dump Trump” sign had it ripped out of her hand by security, who escorted her out. “Get her out,” Trump said. Another man was subdued and detained by local police for disobeying Secret Service officers after the rally, but was not arrested.

Trump came out on stage to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” and did not use a teleprompter. The onetime Greenwich resident was loaded for bear on Connecticut’s tax climate, Clinton’s email scandal and his favorite foe, the media.

“It’s a garbage paper,” Trump said of the New York Times. “Maybe we’ll start thinking about taking away their press credentials from them.”

A Secret Service agent guarded a fenced-in media workspace in the center of the arena, while one Trump supporter yelled, “You’re scum.”

The Catholic university faced criticism for hosting Trump, who is friends with the university’s top benefactor, former wrestling executive and twice-thwarted Senate candidate Linda McMahon. The WWE matriarch was in attendance.

Wilton’s Annalisa Stravato, the state GOP’s vice chairwoman, said Trump is loyal to a fault, including to the primary voters who embraced him in April.

“I think he realizes that Connecticut came out big for him, and we will do it again,” Stravato said.

A host of GOP legislative candidates on the underticket avoided Trump, endemic of a schism in the party over its controversial nominee. Trump’s recent spat with the Gold Star parents of a Muslim U.S. Army captain killed in Iraq has compounded his problems.

But not all Republicans on the ballot gave Trump the brush-off. The party’s nominees for U.S. Senate and Congress in the 4th and 5th Districts made appearances at the rally.

State Rep. John Shaban, R-Redding, who is challenging Democrat Jim Himes in the 4th District, cut out of the rally before Trump’s speech so he could attend a feast at St. Roch Church in Greenwich, where he practices law. He hasn’t endorsed Trump and didn’t mince words about the party’s standardbearer.

“If I have a choice of working with a loudmouth jerk versus someone who doesn’t tell the truth, I choose the loudmouth jerk every day of the week,” Shaban said. “I’m a lawyer.”

Sherman First Selectman Clay Cope said he is honoring the will of Republicans in the 5th District, where he is challenging Democrat Elizabeth Esty.

“I have to support Trump because he won in the 5th District,” Cope said, pointing out that his opponent was a Clinton superdelegate even though Bernie Sanders won in the 5th District primary. “If people want Trump, I’ve got to support Trump.”

State Sen. Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury, a delegate for Trump to the GOP national convention last month in Cleveland, said it was disappointing that some of his colleagues were giving Trump a wide berth.

“I can’t imagine they’re voting for Hillary Clinton,” McLachlan said. “Let’s face it, the U.S. Supreme Court is in the balance this election.”

Connecticut hasn’t broken the way of a GOP presidential candidate since 1988, when Greenwich-raised George H.W. Bush carried the state over Michael Dukakis. It hasn’t elected a Republican to Congress or statewide office in a decade, giving Democrats a power monopoly that includes the governor’s office and both chambers of the Legislature.

But that history and voter registration disadvantage for Republicans belied the reception from the predominantly white audience for Trump, who swept all 28 of the state’s GOP delegates with his April primary landslide in the state.

Thousands of people — many of them grassroots Trump supporters with no political background — endured triple-digit heat and long lines to absorb the candidate’s unfiltered and frequently-controversial message.

“He’s going to get rid of all the evil in this world, starting with Obama and Hillary,” said Carol O’Brien, 75, a Darien Republican and caretaker for the disabled. “A vote for Hillary Clinton is a continuation of the ruination of United States of America by President Obama.”

Trump’s sunburnt legions started waiting in line more than two hours before the rally, some seeking refuge under umbrellas or in the shade of trees. One of the first people in line was Jack Ehli, going into his senior year at Staples High School in Westport, who will turn 18 a few weeks before Election Day.

“Dude, I’ve been dying for a hat,” said Ehli, his white Trump T-shirt soaked with sweat.

Ehli said he plans to go into the Marines and admires Trump’s support of the military, notwithstanding Trump’s feud with the parents of Humayun Khan, who assailed Trump during the Democratic National Convention over his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.

“I personally feel like it’s a little excessive not letting Muslims into the country,” Ehli said. “Not all of them are bad. I feel like we shouldn’t single out an entire religion.”

Mike Garrett, Bridgeport’s Republican Party boss, said the contempt of the Khan family is misplaced.

“Mr. Khan, you spent your time at the DNC condemning Donald Trump. Well, who killed your son?” Garrett said. “Donald Trump or radical Muslims?”

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy