WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he didn’t “want to see people hurt or worse” at his campaign rally in Chicago, so he decided to postpone the event.
Trump tells MSNBC in a telephone interview that, “I think we did the right thing.”
The Friday night rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago was called off due to security concerns. Supporters and protesters alike had packed into a campus arena, and for the first time during the billionaire businessman’s White House run they appeared to be of equal number.
Trump attributed the protests not to objections to his policies, but to general malaise in the United States — particularly among people upset they haven’t been able to find jobs.
“It’s anger in the country,” he said. “I don’t think it’s directed at me. Just what’s been going on for years.”
But many of the protesters at the event said they were there to stop Trump from speaking. Among them was Jermaine Hodge, a 37-year-old lifelong Chicago resident who owns a trucking company.
He says: “Our country is not going to make it being divided by the views of Donald Trump. Our country is divided enough. Donald Trump, he’s preaching hate. He’s preaching division.”
