Antifa Crashes Pro-Trump Rally in Vancouver, Briefly Setting Off Wrestling, Mania

A smoke-filled scrum grew to include dozens of people.

(Mike Bivins)

Fights over President Donald Trump continue to rock the suburbs.

A sunny spring afternoon in Vancouver, Wash. filled with bright red smoke and black-masked faces as Portland-area anarchists known as "antifa" invaded a "Rally for Trump and Freedom" in Esther Short Park.

Vancouver police arrested at least three antifa counter-protesters today, wrestling them to the grass after a large scrum that grew to include dozens of people.

With the White House embattled in policy delays and Russian election-tampering allegations, demonstrators arrived in the park for something of a class reunion from the campaign trail of 2016. They played the hits, at one point chanting "Lock her up!" about erstwhile opponent Hillary Rodham Clinton.

A pro-Trump demonstrator in an anti-Muslim sweater observes antifa gathering in Vancover, Wash. (Mike Bivins)

The rally attracted about 200 people, many aboard big motorcycles and bigger trucks. A handful of men packed open-carry pistols on their hips.

It also drew the antifa crowd—bandanna-clad vigilantes by now a common and disruptive sight at anti-Trump and pro-Trump events alike.

(Mike Bivins)

Today, the counter-protesters came with smoke bombs, which they hurled into the Trump rally. Then they rushed the front gate of the private event, bringing police into what resembled a midday mosh pit.

Mike Bivins

Originally from Eastern Washington's Tri-Cities, Mike is a freelance journalist, and has lived most of his life in Portland. He enjoys telling the news via social media with a smartphone.

Aaron Mesh

Aaron Mesh is WW's editor. He’s a Florida man who enjoys waterfalls, Trail Blazers basketball and Brutalist architecture.

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