Donald Trump leads all of the polls in the state of Florida and he made his first official speech on his home turf in South Florida. He is beating former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio and this weekend he will start spending more time in the Sunshine State.
The sound and stage crews prepared the Jacksonville Landing on Friday for Saturday’s political rally featuring Trump who choose the First Coast as one of two stops he will make in Florida this weekend. He spoke there today in front of an estimated crowd of nearly 20,000.
Trump was at home last night in Miami as he gave a stump speech was held at one of the most beautiful golf and iconic resorts in the country Doral a resort he now owns. He opened his speech with an extended soliloquy on the property, which he said he rescued from decline after negotiating a last-minute price reduction from $170 million to $150 million.
But this night was more about Dr. Ben Carson, the polls in Iowa and protesters on site. The campaign was held at the packed ballroom at Doral Friday night.
Trump was interrupted three times by a small three small groups of protestors; he paused during at least three disturbances, acknowledging them each time.
“See the first group, I was nice. Oh, take your time,” he said. “The second group, I was pretty nice. The third group, I’ll be a little more violent. And the fourth group, I’ll say get the hell out of here!”
Trump’s supporters tried to drown out the protesters with chants of “USA! USA!”
The billionaire businessman knocked Carson’s reserved personal and questioned his competence before a revved-up crowd of supporters.
“Donald Trump falls to second place behind Ben Carson,” Trump said, reading the headline of the day. “We informed Ben, but he was sleeping.”
He added that Carson could not aggressively tackle trade in the way Trump has pledged to do and said the country needs a “special leader” with “tremendous energy” as president. And in more subtle ways, Trump hinted at a contrast between him and Carson as he pointed out that the U.S. needs a strong leader in the face of “medieval times” in which ISIS is beheading Christians.
Trump also said he did not “believe” the results of the Quinnipiac University and Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics polls on Thursday and Friday that showed Carson seizing the lead in Iowa.
“I don’t believe those polls by the way because both of those pollsters disagree with me,” Trump said. “Both of those polling groups do not like me at all and I disagree (with the results).”
He also took a shot at Super Pac’s, Trump called on a handful of outside political action committees (PACs) supporting his campaign to return the money they have collected, Hillary Clinton said she won’t accept donations from federally registered lobbyists or PACs for private prison companies.
“I am self-funding my campaign and therefore I will not be controlled by the donors, special interests and lobbyists who have corrupted our politics and politicians for far too long,” Trump said in a statement. “I have disavowed all super PAC’s, requested the return of all donations made to said PAC’s, and I am calling on all presidential candidates to do the same.”
