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For the second time since he retook the White House, President Donald Trump returned to Arizona on Friday. After previously speaking at Charlie Kirk’s memorial in September, Trump was back in the Valley for another Turning Point USA event: A “Build the Red Wall” rally to shore up Republican support ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The event, held at the Turning Point-aligned Dream City Church in north Phoenix, drew throngs of MAGA supporters and a notable number of anti-Trump protesters. Hundreds of people lined up along Cave Creek Road while hundreds more in cars trickled into the church parking lot.
Ahead of the event, the “No King’s” crowd held signs calling Trump a pedophile, blasted him for his now-deleted AI-generated image showing him as Jesus and criticized his war in Iran and its effect on gas prices. One person just straight-up called him “poopy pants the antichrist.” Heckling was rampant.
Meanwhile, Trump supporters blasted “YMCA” from their cars and showed off their red MAGA hats. MAGA merch stands advertised Kirk’s now-iconic white “Freedom” shirt and troves of stickers, including one that read “drunk wives matter.” One vendor had set up at the location more than 24 hours prior. Flyers for GOP Rep. David Schweikert’s gubernatorial campaign were placed on the windshields of parked cars — despite Schweikert either not being invited or choosing not to attend the event. “The Daily Show” correspondent Jordan Klepper was also spotted on the grounds.
Inside, a high-profile slate of MAGA public figures and politicians, including former NASCAR driver Danica Patrick and Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk, spoke to the crowd. Every Republican member of Arizona’s congressional delegation — barring Schweikert — also spoke. Comments were delivered by Juan Ciscomani (or if you’re Trump, Juan Cisco-maynee), Abe Hamadeh, Paul Gosar, Eli Crane and Andy Biggs, who is Trump’s pick for governor. Two Trump-endorsed congressional candidates, former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely and former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, also hyped up the crowd ahead of Trump’s arrival.
Gosar stumbled through his meandering speech, called his siblings “communist” — they have publicly disavowed him politically — and endorsed former Democrat Rodney Glassman for Arizona Attorney General. (That was met with boos.) Hamadeh demonstrated his inability to let go of his 2022 loss against Kris Mayes in the race for Arizona Attorney General, calling Mayes a “cartel lawyer.” Biggs relentlessly criticized Gov. Katie Hobbs, whom he mistakenly called “Kari Lake” at one point. Feely just wanted everyone to know that he was asked by Trump to run for office — though Trump also asked him to run for a different one when Lamb jumped into the race in the 5th Congressional District.
Once on stage, Trump also gave shoutouts to Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, state superintendent candidate Kimberly Yee, infamous former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Secretary of State candidate Alex Kolodin — and notably not Gina Swoboda, who’d previously won Trump’s endorsement for Congress before she switched races to make room for Feely.
The marathon five-hour event had a bit of craziness for everyone. Here are the eight wildest things said at the Trump rally.
Oh, now we care about pedophiles
“Under Joe Biden, they lost over 500,000 children that were trafficked, many of them sent to strip clubs or to pedophiles because the Biden administration couldn’t be bothered to vet the sponsors that were trafficking these kids.” – Andy Biggs
Biggs peddled the commonly exaggerated statistic and added a new, gross twist about the number of children who were “lost” by the Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration. In reality, Biggs’ figure is 15 times the actual number of unaccompanied minors who failed to show up for court dates at immigration courts from 2019 to 2023, according to a BBC fact check. And his sudden concern about pedophiles is interesting, given that he balked at releasing the Epstein files when first given the opportunity.
Flip it and reverse it
“I refuse to let California become Arizona.” – Erika Kirk
Ma’am, you may have gotten that twisted. You often hear the phrase “Don’t California My Arizona,” but not the other way around. Though if that means all the California transplants stop buying all the housing and making things so unaffordable, maybe we can get behind it.
An uncomfortably long intro
When Trump finally took the stage, he walked out to Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to Be an American,” a favorite of Trump’s. And then…he just stood there. For two minutes. Awkwardly pumping his fist, giving a little wave. “Proud to Be an American” is not the national anthem, folks. We don’t have to ride the whole thing out.
He admit it!
“We won the popular vote by millions of votes. That’s the first time in decades that a Republican — I don’t know what that’s all about — won the popular vote.” – Donald Trump
This is true: Before Trump in 2024, the last Republican president to win the popular vote was George W. Bush in his 2004 reelection campaign.
But wait a minute! Didn’t Trump claim he won the popular vote in 2016 “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”? Did he claim the same in 2020, when Joe Biden won a record-breaking 81 million votes?
Has Trump finally admitted he was wrong?
Shrug emoji
“We’re getting along well. But who knows! Who knows with anyone, but who knows with Iran in particular. This process should go very quickly.” – Donald Trump
Trump was talking about ceasefire talks with Iran here, and he sounds so confident! Just the amount of certainty you hope to hear after weeks of waging war to achieve almost nothing.
President of peace
“I ended eight wars, and it may be a little early to say this, but if we add Iran and Lebanon, that will be 10 wars ended and many, many millions of lives saved.” – Donald Trump
It’s an exaggerated claim that Trump has made several times over the last few months, as many of these situations were not full-scale wars involving the U.S., but rather smaller regional conflicts. It also ignores that he started the Iran war and also invaded and kidnapped the president of Venezuela.
Boom, boom, boom
“As you’ve probably noticed if you watch the news, illegal drugs coming in by ocean or sea are down by 97%. Boom! Boom! Boom! And we’re trying to find out who the 3% is because I consider them to be perhaps the bravest people anywhere in the world. Boom!” – Donald Trump
Nothing like the president of the United States pantomiming the extralegal killings of people on boats in the Caribbean.
Love that, uh, widow’s peak
“NASCAR great Danica Patrick. Where’s Danica? Where is Danica? I love Danica. I love her hair. I always liked her hair. I like the widow’s peak. You know the widow’s peak?” – Donald Trump
What an oddly specific compliment.
