Supporters, protesters meet Trump in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS - More than 100 protesters lined a downtown sidewalk late Thursday as Donald Trump supporters exited the Doubletree Hotel by Hilton for the billionaire's campaign rally.

Trump took the stage at 8 p.m., following a rally earlier Thursday in Davenport and a radio interview on WHO-AM.

In Davenport, Trump spoke for about an hour to more than 2,500 people - a capacity crowd - at the Adler Theater.

He pushed back at the narrative being told this week at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, saying Democrats 'were not talking about the real world.”

On WHO's Simon Conway show, he struck many of his trademark campaign themes - that immigrants coming into the country raise the terrorism threat, that trade deals have been badly negotiated and that Democrats have lied, especially about him.

'They were saying so many lies about me last night,” Trump said in the radio interview. 'They were lying and lying and it was amazing. You have to sit back and watch and smile and have though skin. But the people of Iowa understand. That's why I'm doing really well in Iowa right now. But it's always hard to watch as you're being attacked, especially when the attacks are really false attacks.”

At the DoubleTree in downtown Cedar Rapids, doors opened hours before Trump was to go on, and a crowd started forming as supporters lined up to get in and detractors gathered.

'We don't hold with the message of hate and fear spread by Donald Trump,” said Rachel Baker, of Cedar Rapids, one of the protest organizers. 'He doesn't speak for us. We want to let him know his message of hate is not welcome in our city, not welcome in our state and we do not want him as our president.”

Demonstrators chanted and held signs that promoted love or denounced Trump, They waved signs in support of Muslims and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Cedar Rapids Police Officer Blake Crutchley said five people were escorted out of the rally after being disruptive.

Joe Stutler, 52, from Marion, who was in the Army and the Army National Guard from 1982 to 2000, said he was demonstrating because he doesn't like the way Trump has spoken about veterans.

'Trump, even what he said about McCain,” Stutler said, referring comments Trump made last year in Ames criticizing U.S. Sen. John McCain, a pilot during the Vietnam War who was shot down and held prisoner. 'You're going to say that to a war veteran? You compare your going to a military academy for high school as somehow or other having served? No. You're running to be commander in chief, but you've never served. I find it very problematic.”

Shawnie May, of Cedar Rapids, said she came out because she wants to support those who may feel ostracized by Trump's rhetoric.

'If we divide, the United States isn't the United States anymore,” May said. 'When I see a lot of people agreeing with the fact that they want people to move out of America just because they're a different race or religion, that's not good at all. We need to be a team. I want people to feel they're safe here. That's what America's all about.”

At one point, a Bernie Sanders supporter entered the protests, saying that Hillary Clinton is just as bad as Trump.

After the rally ended, a handful of Trump supporters walked over to Trump protesters, yelling 'get a job” and other phrases while protesters argued back. The groups chanted back and forth until about 9:20 p.m. when Cedar Rapids police asked groups to disperse.