Trump rally draws faithful in Lower Bucks

Should that include rolling back national surveillance that grew under Barack Obama and George W. Bush? "The police is different," Harshaw said -- Americans want more security. But mostly, Harshaw expects Trump will cut income taxes, as Ronald Reagan did: "Jobs came back. Interest rates came down. Companies earned more. The economy took off. That's what needs to happen again."

The Bucks County rally was one of several around the country, with Trump supporters demonstrating near his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump Tower in New York,  the Washington Monument, and the state capitols of Colorado and Minnesota. Some of the gatherings erupted into verbal clashes and minor scuffles with counterdemonstrators.

Colleen McCloskey drove to the Bucks County rally with her husband, Melvin, from Riverside, N.J., home to many immigrants. "Security is important to me," she said. "There have been so many illegals come in."

She added: "I'm all for immigrants coming in and working. But they have to do it legally."

McCloskey, who works for a doctor, says patients cut visits as insurance copayments rose since passage of Obama's Affordable Care Act, which added more than 10 million uninsured people to Medicaid rolls. She hopes Trump will control medical costs: "His speech to Congress gave me comfort, that when they reform health care, they will still cover existing conditions."

Her husband added: "And we like that (Trump) is going to support the military. I believe in 'shoot first, then ask questions.' "

Colleen laughed. "You don't own a gun," she said. He laughed, too.

"I want this country to be united," and Trump's the man for the job, said Chuck Tyrell, who worked at Lockheed Martin's Newtown facility until it shut two years ago. He now commutes to New York. "I'm here to support the president. We've been too divided. We have to be like this," he said, pulling his hands together.

Worthington, who took heat from liberal customers when he came out for Trump, urged conciliation: "We're not here by any means to be opposed to any group," he told the crowd. "If you really believe Donald Trump's message of making America great, you've got to accept other opinions, even from people who despise and loathe you. Stop fighting with the other side. Be positive." 

Choking back tears, Worthington praised Trump's promise on a swing through Pennsylvania last year to back "Right to Try," a campaign to get the FDA to loosen drug restrictions on terminally ill patients, like a friend of Worthington's who has ALS.  

Out-of-county speakers were combative. Joe DeFelice, chair of Philadelphia's minority Republicans, slammed Mayor Kenney as "poster child for the radical left," for not talking about "radical Islamic terror," and for a "regressive soda tax" and a "disgusting 'Sanctuary City' policy." That got the day's big boo. But "we're no longer a blue state," DeFelice added. "That's because of Donald Trump."

Erin Elmore, a Villanova Law grad, past contestant on Trump's The Apprentice TV show, and Trump campaign staffer, was billed by rally organizers as a TV commenter on "banking, beauty, fashion, and current events." She called the crowd "brave" for backing Trump, whose "only special interest is you guys."
 
Jack Posobiec, national special projects director of Citizens for Trump, led the crowd in what he called "one-word speeches" -- "Trump! Trump! Trump!" "USA, USA, USA!" -- and blamed "mainstream media" for trying to "make you think you are isolated" when "we're just the majority now," no longer "silent."

"I never thought I'd see the day when we had a voice again," concluded Barry Casper, an insurance agent and co-organizer of People 4 Trump. "We're not going away."

This story includes information from the Associated Press.