DALLAS — Donald Trump brought his Texas-sized swagger to a Texas-sized rally of 15,000 people, declaring here on Monday night, “We are really killing it. We are killing it.”

As his lead in many national and early-state polls continues to grow, Trump gave one of the longest speeches of his campaign and continued to crowd-test the possibility that he may begin accepting large campaign contributions. With Republican rival Ben Carson drawing significant Christian support, he also touted his affinity with evangelicals.


Meanwhile, both the number of protesters that have become common outside his campaign events and the intensity of their clashes with Trump supporters reached new heights.

Recognizing the roused spirit of the crowd inside the arena, Trump reevaluated the label of “the new silent majority” he has bestowed on his supporters. “Maybe we should call it the noisy, the aggressive, the wanting-to-win majority,” he said. “That’s what it is.”

The raucous event marked one of Trump's largest crowds yet and kicked off a week that will again have the billionaire businessman dominating the news cycle. Before he heads to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley for the second GOP presidential debate, Trump will talk national security and veterans issues on board a battleship in San Pedro on Tuesday night, as he amps up his outreach to the military community.

On Monday evening, the most pointed message at the rally came from Trump’s introductory speakers, tea party activists Katrina Pierson and Scottie Nell Hughes, and was aimed at the Republican Party. “I hope Donald Trump tears up that loyalty pledge,” said Pierson, who railed against the Republican establishment's attempts to undermine tea party candidates, including the Republican National Committee's insistence that White House contenders sign a pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee, whoever that might be.

Hughes said the Republican Party takes its conservative base for granted. “They think we’ll always be there. We need to end that this election cycle,” she said.

But even as the event highlighted Trump's outsider status, there were glimpses of a maturing candidate who may need the trappings of a traditional campaign to maintain his commanding lead. Trump, whose appeal derives in large part from his perceived independence from donors, has repeatedly complained about turning down large campaign contributions and asked his crowds about the possibility of beginning to accept them, to lukewarm reactions.

On Monday, he said he felt "awkward" turning down such offers and claimed he could quickly raise $200 million if he began accepting them. "If I took that would you people object?” Trump asked, receiving a muted mix of no's and boos from the crowd, which a staffer at the arena said numbered roughly 15,000.

With Carson coming in second place behind Trump in recent national polls, largely on the strength of evangelical support, the front-runner reminded the crowd that he is Presbyterian and brought the pastor who opened the event back on stage to single him out for praise.

And two days before the second debate that will again put Trump front and center on the prime-time stage, the real estate mogul and preeminent showman presented his election as all but a foregone conclusion. After complaining about plans to spend millions of dollars to take scaffolding off the Capitol Dome for the presidential inauguration he said, “I like the idea of having the scaffolding down when they’re swearing me in.”

Trump listed the states in which he is currently leading. Nodding to the setting, Trump asked, “Have you ever heard of the great state of Texas? Leading in Texas. How does that happen?”

He also took issue with President Barack Obama’s evaluation of the biggest problem facing the world today. “Obama thinks the single biggest threat in the world today is global warming,” he said, drawing boos. “The biggest threat we have is nuclear global warming,” said Trump, after a lengthy excoriation of the Iran nuclear deal.

He drew sustained applause for pledging to repeal and replace Obamacare — saying the replacement would be “Donaldcare.”

The most enthusiastic applause was for his pledge to stop illegal immigration. “It’s a massive problem. We have to stop illegal immigration. We have to do it,” he said to a prolonged standing ovation and chants of “USA!”

The rally also brought sizable conflict.

As it ended, attendees filing out, mostly white, clashed with 200 or so lingering protesters, mostly black and Hispanic. Police intervened in several heated exchanges, including some involving members of the Black Lives Matter movement. “Blue lives matter,” chanted several young Trump supporters.

Protesters then chanted a Spanish profanity at attendees. After attendees dispersed, dozens of police officers, including several on horseback, pushed protesters off arena property in a tense standoff.

After being pushed to the other side of the street, one protest leader encouraged those gathered to arm their families and teach them to protect themselves. “You’re only going to get Martin Luther King so long before you get Malcolm X,” he said.

Ahead of the event, Lico Reyes, the Texas immigration chair of the League of United Latin American Citizens and an organizer of one anti-Trump protest, worked to set up a gathering in a parking lot across the street from the arena, where a life-sized replica of the Statue of Liberty and an oversize papier-mâché piñata of Trump’s head sat on a temporary stage.

“We need a voice that talks about justice, love, equality and that doesn’t cut down people — that’s not racist and in your face,” said Reyes of the protest’s purpose. He said that when the protesters, who were marching from a local cathedral, arrived, they would smash the piñata. Reyes later provided an estimate of over 1,300 protesters at the peak of the counter-rally.

Down the street, a separate group of about three dozen protesters stood behind metal barriers and heckled attendees as they lined up for the event. Two women held signs that featured doctored photos of Trump in the uniform of the Third Reich, with a Hitler mustache and flanked by swastika-emblazoned flags. “Raise your hand, racists,” a man with a microphone connected to loudspeakers repeatedly shouted at the queued-up attendees. A Trump supporter in a purple dress raised her hand. She walked up to the barrier separating attendees from protesters and, when offered the microphone, shouted into it — first in Spanish, then in English — “The Mexicans are the hairs of a--holes. Viva Donald Trump.” She added, to a female protester, “Clean my hotel room, b----.” She later identified herself as Jackie, age 30, but declined to provide a last name.

“Somebody press 1 for English,” hollered Trump supporter David Loutz, 52, at the protesters. He said Trump won his loyalty when he said he would deport millions of undocumented immigrants. “This isn’t going to be painless. They’ve been inflicting pain on us for 20 years,” said Loutz, a van driver, of the anticipated deportation process. “I was very humanitarian until the numbers became overwhelming.”