Donald Trump supporters host rally on 19th Ave.

Dozens of President Donald Trump supporters flocked to 19th Avenue Sunday afternoon to show their support for the president.

With only five weeks until the election, tensions are ramping up in San Francisco as Trump supporters congregated in what is considered the most liberal city in the nation, according to a 2014 study from the American Political Science Review. 

The protest fell on the same day reports on Trump’s tax records were released. The New York Times revealed that he had paid no income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years, among other revelations.

John Dennis, chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party and a candidate who had run against Nancy Pelosi for California’s 12th District seat, was in attendance at the rally. Dennis garnered 7.7% of the vote during the primary election this past March, which put him in third place but fell short of guaranteeing him a spot in the general election this November.

“We don’t have a lot of electoral victories here. But this is just a way for people to come into the heart of the most liberal big city in America and fly their colors,” Dennis said.

Supporters lined up along 19th Avenue at 1:30 p.m. from Stonestown to Taraval Street with both Trump and thin blue line flags billowing in the wind.

“We’re out here supporting the president. We thought it was time that we actually showed that there’s a quiet, dignified side to this,” Leo Lacayo said.

Lacayo is the founder of Lacayo & Associates, an immigration consulting business that paid $400,000 in a settlement with San Francisco in 2017 for defrauding clients for decades as “a predatory immigration consulting business that charged for sham legal services that it was not competent to provide while robbing clients of thousands of dollars.”

Gesturing to the crowd, he said, “Look at these people. They’re all immigrants. There’s all races, colors and creeds.”

Refugees International, a nonprofit humanitarian organization, gave Trump an F rating on its 2019 report card for his administration’s performance relating to refugee and humanitarian protection, citing the administration’s discrimination against asylum-seekers based on their country of origin.

May Magnolia, a Trump supporter who voted Democrat until switching to Trump in 2016, said she plans to vote for him again and feels worried that Democrat policies will hurt the country.  

“Democrats do a lot of bad things. Tax very high. [There’s] a lot of homeless around here,” she said. “This is America, and I want this to be America great again. I don’t want the Chinese to come over [and] control us.”

While few counter-protesters showed up, some individuals took it upon themselves to make their grievances with the rally known. Suzy Y., who was biking in the area, got into a confrontation with one of the attendees because he was not wearing a mask. 

“I was born and raised in San Francisco,” she said. “This does not belong here.”

Domenic Strazzabosco, an SF State alum, was standing in the middle of 19th Avenue wearing a Bernie shirt, a “Black Lives Matter” mask and holding up a sign that read, “End all state sanctioned violence #BLM.”

“I’m usually scared of yelling at these things, but I’ve just been really opinionated on this,” he said. “It’s such a disgusting display of anti-everything San Francisco represents.”

An upcoming Trump 2020 boat rally similar to that held outside of Austin, Texas, on Sept. 6 is scheduled for Oct. 10, according to the event’s Facebook page.