Inside the Rowdy, Racist Canceled Trump Rally
Fuck Donald Trump!"
I've been outside the UIC Pavilion for about ten minutes when I first hear someone shout it from a passing car. It's about 2:00 on Friday afternoon. The heckler, in a silver sedan, has come to a rolling stop to yell at the line of rally attendees — now long enough to snake along the length of the arena and a parking garage. The doors to Trump's rally won't open for another hour, and already at the south entrance, the maximum-capacity line has been shut off to any stragglers.
Ever since Trump announced he'd be coming to the University of Illinois at Chicago, it hadn't made sense to me — Chicago writ large isn't natural Trump territory, much less UIC, with its young, diverse student body. This wouldn't be one of his barn-burning romps through the Deep South; this would be a pitched drive onto enemy territory, for Trump as well as his supporters — almost uniformly suburban or out-of-staters. Worse, the Trump camp seemed to have a ready-built opposition in formation: the coalition of largely black and Latino activists who had lately rocked Rahm Emanuel's mayoralty, amidst the compelling evidence his administration had covered up the police murder of unarmed teenager Laquan McDonald.
On Friday, it doesn't seem like that force has materialized. A Trump supporter named Matt is dual-wielding signs, mocking the paltry number of protesters: "At Least You Tried, Protesters!" and "Liberals Claimed 3,000 Strong — I See 30." The count isn't that low — there are about 50 of them across the street and kitty-corner to the main entrance — but I'm still surprised by the thin ranks.
"I can't afford to go to a top-tier university, and I've been working since I was 15 years old," Matt tells me. "I've been busting my ass my entire life."
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