Texas-sized crowd gathered for Trump rally

Tom Abrahams Image
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Texas-sized crowd gathered for Trump rally
He was announced as "The next President of The United States" and walked out to the theme song from the 1984 movie "The Karate Kid."

DALLAS, TX (KTRK) -- He was announced as "The next President of The United States" and walked out to the theme song from the 1984 movie "The Karate Kid."

Donald Trump's first Texas campaign rally was as much spectacle as it was substance.

"The polls come out and we're killing it. We're killing it." said the current GOP frontrunner. "People are sick and tired. They want change. It's coming "

In his hour long speech, delivered without notes or a teleprompter, to an estimated crowd of 20,000, he discussed tax cuts for the middle class, promising to unveil a new plan in the coming weeks.

"We've got to lower taxes for a lot of people," he said. ""Middle income people are being decimiated."

But it is his status as a political outsider, and a well-known billionaire businessman, that has endeared him to those already loyal to his campaign some five months before the Iowa voters caucus in the nation's first 2016 primary.

The biggest applause of the night came when Trump discussed illegal immigration and his plan to build a two thousand mile wall along the southern United States border with Mexico.

"We are going to build a wall," he said. "Walls work. We have to stop illegal immigration. We have to do it."

For Gary Estes, the Monday night event in Dallas' American Airlines Center was his first political rally ever.

"We really like him is the reason we would come to this," he said standing next to his son, another supporter. "I've never been to a political rally before."

He is the anti-politician and is admittedly politically incorrect.

"If I don't win" he said. "This has been a waste of time for me folks. I really mean it too."

Deborah Simpson, another supporter, came here to meet other Trump-backers. She's hoping to connect with like-minded voters who are buying what Trump is selling.

"He tells the truth," said Simpson. "It's the same thing you sit at your house and complain about. And he sits at his house and complains about and they sit at their house and complain about that you're not allowed to say in front of (a) camera. "

From Dallas, Trump travels to Los Angeles. He'll deliver remarks aboard the USS Iowa to a group called "Veterans For A Stronger America" on Tuesday night before appearing in the second Republican primary debate. It airs Wednesday night and Trump will be center stage during the prime time event.