EL PASO, Texas — A handful of Trump supporters chanting slogans for the president confronted mourners at a memorial to the 22 people killed in El Paso, Texas Wednesday evening before being ushered away by police officers.
It was one of a number of confrontations around the city as protesters and counterprotesters came face to face on the day of President Trump’s visit.
Local media reported that one person was arrested in a brief scuffle at an anti-Trump protest, but the day otherwise passed peacefully.
Elsewhere, two women and a young man in a “Make America Great Again” cap approached well-wishers in a parking lot close to the scene of Saturday’s shooting.
The site has been covered with flowers, candles, and cards, and on Wednesday afternoon attracted a string of speakers railing against what they said was Trump’s racist rhetoric. However, Trump supporters appeared sporadically through the day, and in the late afternoon two women of color began chanting, “We love Trump.”
A crowd rapidly gathered around them. “Have some respect for the families,” shouted one bystander, before six police officers surrounded the Trump supporters and escorted them away.
Kirkpatrick Noaker, 16, who was accompanying his mother and wore a red MAGA hat, said he felt under siege simply for supporting the president.
“I feel like there’s a gap between us. And to be a Trump supporter feels like being a Nazi right now, but the point is that we believe in America and that Trump is doing something good,” he said.
Thomas Bartram, 21, said he had driven his truck, complete with banner of the president dressed as Rambo, from Houston to make a point.
“It seemed like the right thing to do, to come out and support Trump. He’s getting a lot of criticism,” he said.
He added that he was “an open-carry kind of guy” at political rallies but had opted not to bring his gun because of the nature of the tragedy.
“It’s a funeral so it didn’t seem like the right thing to do,” he said.
