It was well over 100 degrees when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump flew into the Redding airport on Friday. But that did not deter the thousands gathered on the tarmac to hear him speak. The crowd was so big it had to be moved outside.
"USA, USA, I like that,” Trump said. “By the way, I'm gonna play heavy in California. I think we can win it. We get crowds like this all over the place. They didn't even give you a hanger, there's no hanger big enough. They don't even give hangers anymore."
Hundreds more were denied entry, but still managed to hear Trump speak from the parking area. Antonio Garcia made the trip from Chico and says he liked what he heard.
"He's cool as a cucumber,” Garcia said. “You can't really say anything that's going to get Donald Trump riled, and one of the reasons why America likes him, and one of the reasons why he's the best choice by far is because we don't have to worry anymore about somebody who's going to spend more time worrying about who they're going to offend, than actually getting something done."
Olivier O'Mahoney is a reporter with Paris Match, a weekly French newspaper, part of Trump’s traveling press corp. He says there is an intense curiosity about Trump even overseas.
"In France our presidential election is taking place next year in 2017,” O’Mahoney said. “So I think if he gets elected it could kind of liberate some people in France to vote for an anti-establishment candidate."
Trump promised that he would be back in Redding before November and the crowd seemed to follow his every word. There were no signs of protests that have dogged him in other cities.
