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Protest Likely to Greet Trump Fundraising Trip in California

Associated Press

   RIO RANCHO, NEW MEXICO - President Donald Trump is making a rare visit
   to California, a Democratic stronghold where he is expected to rake in
   millions of dollars during a series of fundraisers for his reelection
   effort that are almost certain to be met with jeering protests.

   Trump has routinely mocked California over its liberal culture,
   policies and politics. His visit Tuesday and Wednesday signals that
   despite the state's decidedly leftward swing in recent years there are
   still plenty of wealthy Republicans who support him.

   "There's not been a president in living history that is as unpopular in
   the state of California as Trump," said Mike Madrid, a GOP political
   consultant who is an outspoken Trump critic. "But our money spends the
   same as everyone else's."

   Trump continues to rake in gobs of cash more than a year out from the
   November 2020 contest, with his campaign and the Republican National
   Committee pulling in over $210 million since the start of 2019, Federal
   Election Commission records show. That's more than all the current
   Democrats seeking to replace him raised combined during that period.

   The California events, which will be spread across two days in in the
   Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego, are expected to bring in an
   additional $15 million, according to a Republican official familiar
   with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal
   matters.

   California was an incubator for the modern conservative movement that
   swept the state's former governor, Ronald Reagan, into the White House
   in 1980. But demographic changes and an influx of new residents have
   helped drastically rework the political contours of the country's most
   populated state, with the former GOP stronghold of Orange County now
   home to more registered Democrats than Republicans. For Republicans,
   who have been resigned to political irrelevance at the state level, a
   donation to Trump can amount to its own form of protest.

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