Protesters Halt a "Students for Trump" Meeting at Portland State University

Group leader: "We wanted to see what the leftist radicals would do about us.”

Demonstrators at Portland State University interrupted and overwhelmed the first campus meeting of a "Students for Trump" group on Thursday night.

The protestors against Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump were PSU students and members of several local activist groups, including university groups Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) and PSU Student Union.

"We came to make them uncomfortable," PSU sophomore Olivia Pace said. Pace said activists had been alerted to the pro-Trump meeting by a Facebook group, and had immediately decided to interrupt it.

The meeting was being held in the Smith Memorial Student Union at PSU's downtown Portland campus.

Co-founders of "Students for Trump" Stephen Johnston and Volodymyr Kolychev responded to the change in their meeting agenda by videotaping the event and jumping into heated discussions with the protesters.

Kolychev, Johnston and the handful of other supporters each wore a red hat reading, "Make America Great again."

"I wanted to find a few friends with the same views on Trump," Kolychev said, explaining his desire to found this student group. "And we wanted to see what the leftist radicals would do about us."

Tensions built repeatedly between the two opposing groups over the several hours spent debating Trump's policies and racial stances, with the two student groups repeatedly shouting at each other.

More photos of the protest are below.

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