Donald Trump visited Alabama on Friday night and drew tens of thousands of people to a football stadium in the city of Mobile.
Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions joined Trump onstage and put on a cap that read “Make America Great Again” before welcoming Trump to Alabama.
Trump courted controversy once again this week for his use of the term “anchor baby,” which he used in his immigration plan unveiled last weekend. The term refers to a child born to parents who purposely came to the U.S. illegally so that their offspring would receive full U.S. citizenship. While some media organizations and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took offense at the former reality television star’s politically incorrect language Trump appeared not to care.
“When I announced I was running for president I brought up the subject of illegal immigration … and two weeks later everybody was apologizing to me, they saw that I was right,” Trump said after he took the stage to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” “We’re going to build a wall.”
The crowd’s applause for Trump’s stance on illegal immigration forced him to pause multiple times, and Trump exclaimed, “man this is crazy I’m a non-politician.” Later he added that he would love to have an “expedited election,” and said, “I’d like to have the election tomorrow, I don’t want to wait.”
Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have verbally battled back-and-forth this week. As Trump took the stage on Friday, Fox News reported that the Bush campaign would send supporters an email that reads in part, “Trump’s positions are deeply out-of-step with the Alabama way of life. We know Alabama cherishes life, especially the life of the unborn.”
Trump used part of his time to jab at Bush and egged the crowd on to boo the name “Bush.”
Trump drew such a large crowd in the Heart of Dixie that he had to move the campaign event to an outdoor football stadium earlier this week after receiving overwhelming interest. Earlier this week, he said he expected more than 30,000 people to attend. The venue hosts the University of South Alabama’s football team and the GoDaddy.com annual college football bowl game.
While Trump drew a large crowd, more than 65,000 people reportedly turned out to watch the University of Alabama’s football team practice earlier this year for its “spring game” scrimmage. Before Trump appeared under the Friday night lights in Alabama, he declined to pick sides in the state’s most competitive rivalry between the University of Alabama and Auburn University. But he reportedly called Alabama’s football coach, Nick Saban, “phenomenal” because of the Crimson Tide’s three national championships since 2008.
