The Trump campaign announced Monday that former President Donald Trump will hold an unlikely campaign rally in Coachella, California on Saturday Oct. 12.
California is not expected to be competitive in the 2024 presidential election. Vice President Kamala Harris has a 24-point lead over Trump as of Oct. 11, according to state polling averages, and President Joe Biden won the state four years ago by over five million votes.
Robert Shrum, senior advisor to Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign and John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, calls Trump’s California rally “strategically idiotic.”
“It’s a wasted day,” Shrum said. “It reminds me of Richard Nixon near the end of the 1960 campaign spending two days getting to and from Alaska because he promised to visit all 50 states.”
The rally comes just 24 days before Election Day, with seven battleground states maintaining razor-thin polling margins. Must-win states like Georgia and North Carolina are still reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Helene, prompting questions about Trump’s sojourn west.
California is a common stop for campaign fundraising. Harris raised about $55 million in September from two Golden State fundraisers, while both vice presidential nominees, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, held fundraisers this week in Sacramento and Woodside, respectively.
Trump’s previous visit to Coachella Valley in 2020 involved a fundraiser at billionaire Larry Ellison’s golf club in Rancho Mirage. At the event, a photo, round of golf and roundtable discussion with the former president had a price tag of $250,000.
As of Oct. 11, Trump is not slated to attend any California fundraisers this weekend, though there is a donation incentive at this weekend’s rally, according to Trump supporter Bonnie Wallis.
“There is [a fundraiser] at the event,” Wallis said. “For $25,000, you can get a picture with him.”
Wallis and a dozen other Trump supporters gathered on the Wilson Ave. overpass in Pasadena and flew Trump flags over the 210 freeway on Oct. 10. Wallis, wearing a Trump-Vance T-shirt and “I Stand with Trump” earrings, said she will attend the Coachella rally, and although she will not pay for a photo, she has paid $1,000 entry fees at several Trump fundraisers.
Shrum said it’s more likely Trump is coming to California because he thinks it’s a good place to talk about the border.
According to the city of Coachella’s website, the city’s population is about 97% Hispanic or Latino, a crucial electorate demographic in the neighboring battlegrounds of Arizona and Nevada that Trump seeks to court.
Elected officials from the region have tried to pre-emptively refute Trump’s immigration argument. Rep. Raul Ruiz (CA-25) of Coachella — whose parents were immigrant farm workers — called Trump’s visit “truly appalling” and said, “[Trump’s] hate-driven immigration policy would decimate the local workforce in agriculture, construction and hospitality, severely harming families and businesses alike.”
Steven Hernandez, the Democratic mayor of Coachella, also spoke out against the visit in a statement posted to his Facebook page.
“[Trump] has consistently expressed disdain for the type of diversity that helps define Coachella,” Hernandez said in the statement.
In the rally announcement, the Trump campaign also attacked Harris’s record, specifying California’s “crippling inflation, unaffordable housing and sky-high gas prices.”
Trump has repeatedly portrayed California as a hellscape blueprint for a Harris presidency. At a September press conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Trump claimed Harris “destroyed San Francisco” and “destroyed the state.”
Wallis said she believes Trump’s motivations for the rally are altruistic.
“I think he just wants to show California that he cares,” Wallis said. “It’s not just a political strategy but he’s for the whole country.”
Trump will hold rallies in two other solid Democratic states this month, visiting Aurora, Colorado — a city Trump repeatedly claimed was taken over by Venezuelan gang members — on Friday Oct. 11 and New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Oct. 27.
This Saturday’s rally will be held at Calhoun Ranch at Empire Polo Club and temperatures are expected to climb past 100 degrees.