Multiple agencies share task of keeping streets safe during Trump’s Newport Beach stop

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, as well as the Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach police departments, joined forces with Newport Beach police and SWAT team Saturday when around 3,000 supporters lined Pacific Coast Highway and both entrances to Bayside Drive to catch a glimpse of former President Donald Trump, according to Sgt. Steve Oberon of the NBPD.

Huntington Beach police helped Newport Beach police Saturday on Bayside Drive as a huge crowd of Trump supporters gathered hoping to see the former president’s motorcade.

(Susan Hoffman)

It was a colorful event for which people and dogs were clad in Trump-related outfits to catch a glimpse of the presumptive GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race. The crowd started forming in the morning, a few hours before his early afternoon arrival in Newport Beach for a campaign fundraiser at a private Harbor Island estate.

Jager Schmidt of Newport Beach and Millan Sekosky of Arizona, wearing a Trump inner tube, were among the supporters lining Bayside Drive on Saturday.

(Susan Hoffman)

U.S. flags flew alongside custom Trump statement flags. Various genres of music played loudly on boomboxes here and there, next to stands with vendors peddling Trump-themed merchandise.

The mostly peaceful gathering became riled with boos and shouts when a man riding by on a bike flipped off the crowd. A supporter toting a large red flag screamed a homophobic epithet as he chased another man who was videotaping on his phone. A police officer stepped in to verbally separate two bickering men.

Former President Donald J. Trump waves from behind thick glass in a Suburban as it passes a crowd gathered along Bayside Drive in Newport Beach.

(Susan Hoffman)

Finally, just before 1 p.m. the motorcade turned onto Bayside Drive toward Harbor Island, and the crowd lunged forward beyond the orange cones whooping and hollering as they aimed their phone cameras at the former president.