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President Donald Trump arrived on Tuesday for his first visit to the San Francisco Bay Area since assuming the presidency. He went to an expensive fundraiser at the home of a former technology officer in the hills above Palo Alto, while protesters and sympathizers were gathered in front of the street.
Air Force One landed at 11:02 on a sunny, windy morning at Moffett Field in Mountain View. Several dozens of supporters gathered on the tarmac to watch his arrival, some wearing red Make America Great Again hats and a large Trump 2020 banner.
While he was coming out of Air Force One, Trump greeted his fans by chanting "USA" as he descended the steps of the jet. Wearing a gold tie, Trump shook hands on the tarmac with RNC's chairman committee, Harmeet Dhillon, his wife, Sarvjit Randhawa, and Robin Aube-Warren, deputy director of the NASA Ames research center, before to take his car while the motorcade was moving away. He did not answer questions or talk to reporters.
"It's so exciting to be here," said 71-year-old Rick Carraher, who, with his wife Janis, woke up at 4:30 am and went to Moffett Field from their home. Antioch to greet the president. "We finally have someone who is doing a good job for the Americans and we wanted to show our support."
Trump was scheduled to host a luncheon with tickets ranging from $ 1,000 to $ 100,000 before leaving Tuesday afternoons for other fundraising events in Los Angeles and San Diego.
The Trump campaign and local GOP officials spoke of the place, citing violent protests that erupted during Trump's Bay Area campaign visits in 2016. Even GOP donors who have paid Thousands of dollars for lunch with Trump did not know where his fundraising in the Bay Area would be – they were told that they would be picked up by buses at a drop-off point in Palo Alto, according to an email sent to participants.
By mid-morning, it was evident that the event was taking place in the hills of Scott McNealy, former general manager of Sun Microsystems Inc., in the Palo Alto Hills. Before the president landed, the rumor spread that an important event was going on there and that the demonstrators were starting to arrive on the road to Los Trancos.
Kira Od, a local artist, came out Tuesday morning at 9 am to stand across the street in front of the lunch with a poster depicting a drawing that she made of an asset. with an elongated nose. Passing motorists stopped to take pictures of the streamer, honking and screaming to support his only protest at the top of the winding road.
"Today, I felt compelled to come," said Od. "It's in my backyard and I'd like him to know that it's so disturbing that an artist is willing to devote hundreds of hours to creating art of protest. It's not going to change the world, do not get me wrong. But he's so protected from critics that I really wanted to be here so he could not avoid me and see that. "
Two people holding a Make America Great Again banner are installed just below the Trump posters of Od, a few minutes before the arrival of the presidential motorcade at 11:40 for lunch.
"I'm definitely the minority here," said Kennedy Comacho, a Republican and Trump supporter of Union City, who followed Moffett's parade procession to lunch instead, citing the fact that 39, be a supporter of Bay Area Trump. "But it's really exciting."
Other protesters have settled on the road since Od, flying a Trump baby balloon. Deputy sheriffs asked a group of three reporter protesters to step back about 20 feet due to a blind bend but allowed them to stay close to the aisle. .
The fundraiser takes place in the 32,000 square foot mansion McNealy put on the market last year for nearly $ 100 million. The five-bedroom home, completed in 2008, extends over an area of 13.35 acres and offers "four floors of seemingly endless amenities," according to realtors. Among them: a 110-yard golf practice area with putting greens, an indoor hockey rink and a tennis pavilion, as well as a large "social hall" for the organization of golf. events. If the house were selling at its asking price of $ 96.8 million, it would more than triple the previous record for the most expensive home ever sold in Santa Clara County.
Yolando Sanchez of Sacramento joined four friends of Abuelas Responden, or Answered Grannies, to protest. The five women spent the night in a hotel room in Newark, then drove on Tuesday morning until the organizers told them to go to Alpine Road in the Portola Valley.
They joined a hundred other people who were holding placards and chanting slogans as a dozen policemen in black uniforms ranged themselves between the crowd and the road where Trump passed and a procession of official cars to surrender at lunch.
"We wanted to send him a message stating how unhappy we are with him," said Sanchez, while holding a protest poster. The retired bilingual teaching assistant planned to stay on the site until Trump was back in the afternoon.
Trump's trip comes amidst fierce struggles with California leaders on many legal and political issues – the most recent being the growing number of homeless in that state, with the president criticizing the Democrats' response and suggesting that "no one's here." he could take federal measures to "clean it up." "
"What they do to our beautiful California is a shame for our country," he said at a campaign rally last month. "It's a shame that the world is watching it. Look at Los Angeles with tents and horrible, horrible and disgusting conditions. Look at San Francisco.
California has filed more than fifty lawsuits against Trump's administration, and the Bay Area, home to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat who was her main political opponent, voted against him by the highest margin of all major metropolitan areas in 2016.
But the Bay Area still has many big Republican donors. In the first six months of the year, the Trump campaign and the joint fundraising committee received more than $ 6.5 million in large donations from Californians, more than many Democratic candidates for democracy. Presidency.
The four Trump events in California today and tomorrow are expected to bring in $ 15 million for its joint fundraising committee with the RNC, a GOP source said. Today's breakfast will bring in $ 3 million, the source said.
Trump's last visit to the San Francisco Bay Area was about a June 2016 campaign rally in San Jose, during which protesters attacked and fought with Trump supporters. Several Trump supporters attacked during the event sued the city for failing to provide adequate police protection, and the case is still pending before the courts.
Previously, protesters who had attended the Trump campaign campaign held in April 2016 in Burlingame had forced him to jump over a median of the highway to get to the hotel where he s & # 39; expressed.
On Tuesday, the White House criticized Twitter for explaining the achievements of its government in the Golden State: 870,000 jobs since the 2016 elections, an unemployment rate of 4.1%.
Editor-in-chief Elliott Almond contributed to this report.
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