“Help is on the way” for beleaguered California conservatives, Eric Trump told a fired-up audience in Temecula on Wednesday, May 22, in a speech that blasted Democrats, and liberals for waging a “war on God” using the media, federal law enforcement and other institutions.
The son of former President told hundreds gathered at country music venue in Old Town Temecula that his father won the 2016 and 2020 presidential races and that the 2020 was stolen from his father — despite no credible proof that happened.
“And I promise you, we’re going to win again,” he told a cheering crowd, many of whom wore American flag apparel and the red Make America Great Again hats synonymous with Trump supporters.
Eric Trump, attorney Alina Habba, Trump administration official Kash Patel and Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin were in Temecula to headline a fundraiser for the which seeks to elect Christian conservatives to local school boards.
Before the fundraiser, the atmosphere outside the Stampede felt like a Trump rally, with people waving Trump flags and a MAGA hat-wearing woman handing out small American flags.
Across the street, a small group of protesters held signs with slogans such as “Keep your church out of our school” and “Separate church and state.”
Another protest took place at the Temecula Duck Pond about a mile from the Stampede. The Riverside County Democratic party chairperson and the leader of a group opposed to political extremism in local government .
Inside the venue, family PAC founder and 412 Church Temecula Valley Pastor Tim Thompson kicked things off by telling the audience: “Welcome to the Texas of California!,” an allusion to Temecula and southwest Riverside County being a GOP bastion in a deep-blue state.
A cheer went up when Eric Trump was spotted near the stage. Chants of “Trump! Trump! Trump!” and “USA! USA! USA!” filled the room as he posed for photos.
Eric Trump started his speech by calling Democratic California Gov. “the worst governor.” The audience cheered in agreement.
“I’m sorry you have to live in communism,” Eric Trump said toward the end of his 20-minute remarks.
Eric Trump warned the audience of “a war happening in this country.”
“The Democrats have weaponized every single institution,” he said, including the FBI “to come after my family” and the military, whose leaders, according to Eric Trump, are more interested in renaming military bases to be politically correct than in leading an effective fighting force.
On education, “Frankly, Republicans have been asleep in the wheel,” Eric Trump said.
“The Democrats got in there and they started perverting every single one of these systems … What’s more important than children? What’s more important than our churches? What’s more important than our schools?”
Eric Trump also blasted the continuing criminal cases against his father as meritless and borne of a corrupt system that desperately wants to stop Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
“He’s literally shining this bright light on the actual corruption,” Eric Trump said.
Next up was Habba, a conservative media personality who represented Donald Trump during his civil defamation trial in which he was ordered to pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll. Another jury found Donald Trump civilly liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s.
“Let me tell you what my pronouns are — God, family, guns and MAGA,” she said in a jab at efforts to acknowledge the preferred pronouns of transgender people.
Habba, who was threatened with jail time for interrupting a judge in New York, railed against what she called a corrupt and scheming effort to use the courts to go after Donald Trump by bringing charges after he launched his 2024 campaign.
“When I talked into court and I said ‘Hi, my name is Alina Habba and I represent President Trump’ … all of a sudden, the laws don’t apply,” she said, later saying that keeping Donald Trump in court is “election interference at its finest.”
“They do not want him campaigning and even though they tried to make him stop campaigning, the man is killing everyone in the polls.”
Opponents believe that “making America great again means we’re in a cult,” Habba said, adding: “Thinking that the Constitution and the constitutional rights that we were afforded by our founders, the bedrock of this country, somehow makes us Nazis?”
Thompson urged Christian conservatives to run for school board and vote to keep them in office, especially Temecula school board President Joseph Komrosky, a family PAC-endorsed official .
“Perversion” can’t be allowed to take over schools, Thompson said, adding that if loving God and protecting unborn babies is seen as toxic masculinity, “let’s keep it toxic.”
and a meet-and-greet with Eric Trump.
Thompson said before the event that he hoped it would generate more than $100,000 for the family PAC, which opposes policies with the goal of supporting people and certain ways race is talked about in the teaching of U.S. history.
Five of seven PAC-endorsed candidates across southwest Riverside County .
Eric Trump’s appearance stems from a February visit by Habba at a Temecula-area equestrian facility at an event for , a Thompson-led organization that posts his commentaries and interviews with conservative activists and lawmakers on social media.
Thompson said Habba offered to connect his organization with Eric Trump, one of the former president’s three sons and ’s third child with ex-wife Ivana Trump.
An executive vice president in his father’s business, the Trump Organization, Eric Trump, 40, has been a prominent spokesperson and adviser for Donald Trump over the years. His wife, Lara, is co-chairperson of the Republican National Committee.
Like his father, Eric Trump has about COVID-19, Donald Trump’s accomplishments, the 2020 election and Biden.
Eric Trump also faced scrutiny the Eric Trump Foundation shifted money intended for cancer patients to Trump family businesses and other charities, “many of which were connected to Trump family members or interests, including at least four groups that subsequently paid to hold golf tournaments at Trump courses.”
Eric Trump, who has not been criminally charged, suspended the operations of his charitable foundation in 2016 to avoid the appearance of contributors trying to gain access to his father through donations.
