A bus driver in Coachella Valley says he was assaulted by Trump supporters following the former President’s rally in Coachella. The driver, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, told KESQ News Channel 3 that his shift started out normally but quickly turned into a bit of a nightmare.
The event with about 15,000 attendees was held on October 12 at the Calhoun Ranch – an outdoor venue in rural Coachella. Rally organizers with Donald Trump’s campaign used Coach USA to contract out local drivers who were originally hired to operate busses between 5 and 10 p.m., but things quickly turned sideways as the crowd size grew exponentially, as the driver told KESQ:
“At the beginning, everybody was really conforming to what they needed to do. But towards the end is when everything changed. They started pushing. They started shoving. They started, you know, throwing stuff,” said the driver. “I think the overwhelming crowd of people even inundated the law enforcement. People were tire and hot, they probably didn’t have a lot to eat, a lot of factors created this frustrating mess for attendees.”
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“We were on the back end of the transportation, which started around five o’clock,” explained the driver. “We were told that no more people were coming to back to the venue from the parking lots past two o’clock, but they didn’t hold to that. So the crowds were starting to get bigger and bigger.”
The Trump campaign says that at least 60 busses were arranged for attendee transportation, yet hundreds of die-hard MAGA folks say they were stranded by the lack of busses following the event. People – shockingly – got pissed off and unruly. That’s when the alleged assault took place.
“We couldn’t get in to let people out, because the traffic was so stretched out,” said the driver. “One of the problems was the transportation was going the same way the cars were going, so it slowed everybody down.”
When the bus driver was finally able to pull into the venue, the driver says people became unruly.
“I heard a lady fall down and I went to go check on her at the back of the bus,” claimed the driver. “I walked towards the back of the bus, and I got to the middle of the bus, and I had a slam or a slap against my left side of my face. I was nearly knocked down, and I came to my senses and realized my face was swelling up. My eye I couldn’t see, and then my nose started bleeding heavily. I turned around and whoever hit me was already gone.”
He was able to get himself to the front of the bus to clear up his bloody nose. The driver – an Army Veteran – told KESQ that his military training allowed him to refocus, get to a place of safety and call in the incident so no one else got hurt. After he dropped off his passengers, he was taken to the Eisenhower Emergency Room in Rancho Mirage for treatment.
Here’s what happened next:
“I ended up getting a CAT scan and they checked my eye for cornea scratch, for dislocation, and they checked for a concussion,” said the driver. “I was there an extensive amount of time.”
The driver now says he has to take extra time off work to recover fully, but he’s lucky it wasn’t worse.
“I guess I’m glad it was a hand and not a bat or a knife,” said the driver.
He’s blaming the attack on poor planning by campaign organizers, according to KESQ, saying they underestimated how many people would show up. As more people started coming in, he said it just heightened the confusion and frustration. By the time the rally was over, it was “the perfect storm,” adding that you cannot plan such large events in just a few days. He also had these words of wisdom:
“I know that they were feeling just so frustrated, and I empathize with that. We all felt that way,” said the driver. “But we need to understand that you need to treat people who are service employees like human beings, instead of just targets. You can’t just take your anger out on the first person you see. I just don’t want to hear about anybody else getting hurt simply doing their job.”
I for one am shocked that Trump supporters would turn to violence when they are slightly inconvenienced. I truly cannot believe it. Regardless, the Trump campaign has been putting on events for over eight years at this point. You’d think they’d have this figured out by now.