President Trump’s Whirlwind Visit to California

President Trump’s Whirlwind Visit to California

President Donald Trump finally visited California when he landed in the San Diego area to tour the border wall prototypes as part of a whirlwind trip that also included an address to the troops at Marine Air Station Miramar and a swank fundraising dinner in Los Angeles.

I followed Trump’s travels through my hometown via live broadcasts and social media. The helicopter entourage to the Otay Mesa construction area was very impressive.

The President flying over my neighborhood on his way back to MCAS Miramar #TrumpinSD pic.twitter.com/bmpLELoqWt

— Chelsea (@Anchors_27) March 13, 2018

Watching on TV, I thought Trump, who has vast experience in construction and real estate, was thoroughly enjoying his tour and talking with the builders about methods and materials. He made a steady stream of comments to the press covering the inspection.

“If you didn’t have walls,” Trump told reporters during his tour, “you wouldn’t have a country.”

The president’s arrival was awaited in the area by a cluster of police, chanting protesters and supporters clad in campaign gear, waving American flags.

Also at the site, awaiting him in contrasting silence, are the roughly 30-foot mockups the Department of Homeland Security picked to give a closer look — four of which are solid concrete, while the other four are built of “other materials,” including steel. Built by private contractors from across the country, from Maryland to Arizona, the prototypes have been funded with $20 million from Customs and Border Protection.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and several Border Patrol officials briefed the president on the ongoing assessment of the prototypes, the White House says, “with a focus on how the features and attributes of each impedes illegal crossings.”

As noted above, Trump’s interactions with the protesters and border wall supporters, who were stationed on opposite sides of a nearby street and separated by riot police and sheriff’s department officials, were kept to a minimum. Reports indicate that both sides were of about equal number and tenacity.

Now these are my kind of Californians!

Massive Rally in support of President Trump’s visit to San Diego to inspect the Border Wall Prototypes! #MAGA pic.twitter.com/3pfh8vuRq9

— The Columbia Bugle ???????? (@ColumbiaBugle) March 13, 2018

Ahead of the visit, California Governor Jerry Brown had the temerity to invite Trump to see the Governor’s legacy project, the budget-busting bullet train to nowhere. After his inspection of the prototypes, the media asked Trump for Brown.

“I think Governor Brown’s done a very poor job running California. They have the highest taxes in the United States. The place is totally out of control,” Trump said during a news conference in San Diego.

“You have sanctuary cities where you have criminals living in sanctuary cities, and then the mayor of Oakland goes out and notifies when ICE is going in to pick them up. Many of them were criminals with criminal histories and are very dangerous people. I think the governor is doing a terrible job running the state of California.”

Following the visit to the prototypes, the President returned to Marine Air Station Miramar to give an address to the military. Reports are that there were so many service personnel who came to the event that there was not enough room for them all.

During his speech, Trump mentioned that he planned to give the military an historic pay increase. He also tossed out an idea about a potential new branch of the service.

“My new national strategy for space recognizes that space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air, and sea. We may even have a space force, develop another one: Space Force.” Trump said in a speech at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

“We have the Air Force; we’ll have the Space Force. We have the Army, the Navy,” he continued. “You know, I was saying it the other day, because we’re doing a tremendous amount of work in space, I said maybe we need a new force, we’ll call it the ‘Space Force.’ And I was not really serious, and then I said, ‘What a great idea maybe, we’ll have to do that, that could happen.'”

Then Trump headed to Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon for a high-dollar fundraiser at the Beverly Hills home of Tampa Bay Buccaneers co-chairman Ed Glazier. There was a fair amount of Twitter drama when an investment firm CEO tried to promote a boycott against Trump’s hosts.

If you are even a passive supporter of the President of the United States, DON’T use this guy as a wealth manager. He would destroy your portfolio.@GerberKawasaki pic.twitter.com/6aIoDOwf4B

— Steph (@steph93065) March 12, 2018

Gerber ended up deleting the tweet and making his account protected.

I wonder how long it will be before the President returns to California, the home of the #Resistance. Given the warmer welcome than many anticipated, we may not have to wait too long.

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