Houston Chronicle - Thousands Turn out in Beaumont to see Trump
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By Unkown
Billionaire businessman Donald Trump reprised his call to build a wall along the United States' southern border Saturday as he swept through Beaumont flush with grand promises of victory and ample jabs at his competitors and the press alike.
The Republican presidential frontrunner wound from topic to topic in an hourlong speech to thousands gathered at the 8,500 seat Ford Park Arena, advocating to bomb Iraq's oil fields, criticizing President Barack Obama's foreign policy and extolling his own campaign.
Much of Trump's circuitous address turned on immigration policy and his plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants.
"When you get to Texas, it's got to be a real subject," Trump said. "You get the brunt of it."
With about 1.5 million undocumented residents, Texas has the second-highest undocumented population in the country, following California, according to the nonpartisan research group the Migration Policy Institute.
"We want people coming in, but we can't have this anymore," Trump said after calling representatives of the advocacy group The Remembrance Project to the stage to share stories about loved ones allegedly killed by immigrants living in the country illegally. "We just can't have a country like this where it's being run like the way it's being run."
Thoughts on Paris
Trump, who arrived half an hour late to a rock star's reception - thunderous music, raucous cheers and fluttering signs - opened by asking for a moment of silence for those killed in the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.
"When you look at Paris, you know the toughest gun laws in the world, Paris, nobody had guns but the bad guys," Trump said. "You can say what you want, but if they had guns, if our people had guns, if they were allowed to carry, it would have been a much, much different situation."
Saturday's rally followed last week's release of a poll showing Trump is Ted Cruz' most formidable rival on the Texas senator's home turf. In a University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll of 1,200 registered voters, conducted between Oct. 30 and Nov. 8, Trump and Cruz were tied at 27 percent support each among likely Texas GOP voters.
In recent months, Cruz and Trump have seemed closely aligned, especially on their hard-line stances on immigration. Cruz has made no secret of the fact that he hopes to capture much of Trump's conservative support should the New York business mogul's candidacy begin to crumble.
'It's a spectacle'
A year ago, a Texas poll showed Cruz at 27 percent support among GOP primary voters, at a time when former Gov. Rick Perry was still in the race and held 14 percent support. In September, a Texas Lyceum Poll showed Trump leading Cruz 21 to 16 percent.
"Trump speaks to a kind of anger that's very prominent in Republican primary voting circles, especially in Texas," University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus said. "Trump is not an establishment figure. Texas is a natural place for Trump to come."
Some of those who attended the speech Saturday in Beaumont said they were drawn their support for Trump; others by curiosity.
"It's a spectacle. There's not many spectacles in Beaumont, Texas," said Joe Deagle, 57, of Lumberton. "I'm also curious about the phenomenon of somebody who can say so many incredibly stupid things and get more and more popular no matter what he does."
Joseph Hannan, 32, said he is leaning toward voting for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, but he likes parts of Trump's message, too.
"Trump has the guts to say what everybody's been thinking for the last eight years," Hannan said.
Targeting competition
Political observers said that while Trump has defied the odds so far with his unconventional campaign style, there are indications - such as Trump's recent speech in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in which he criticized Iowans as "stupid for supporting Ben Carson" - that the billionaire's continued success at the top could be on the wane.
"Trump is the middle-finger segment of America, and that has great appeal for people who are so sick of politics as usual," said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. "But the more he does this, people will question his bully and bluster and raise questions about his temperament to be president."
Trump touted his style brusque style.
"People say, 'Trump has a very tough tone; he has a very tough temper.' But we need a tough temperament now, folks," Trump said to cheers before taking a dig at fellow frontrunner Carson, whom he did not mention by name. "We don't need a pathological temperament. We need a tough temperament."
Trump was not shy about criticizing his Republican rivals, taking aim at the immigration plans of Carson and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
"These are lightweights," Trump said.
Carson and Rubio finished third and fourth in the recent University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey, earning the support of 13 percent and 9 percent of likely Republican voters, respectively.
In Texas, the biggest prize in next March's Super Tuesday primary, the coming months promise to showcase how the growing Trump-Cruz faceoff could play out.
As Goldford described it, "Cruz is like the fish who swims along with sharks, waiting for them to fall - waiting for Trump and Carson to collapse, so he can move in and pick up their supporters."
Even so, Silsbee social worker Sally Krall, 47, said she is committed to Trump.
"I feel like he can bring jobs to this county. I like the idea of him closing the border," Krall said, holding up a recently- purchased T-shirt emblazoned with the billionaire's campaign slogan.
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