A security scare sent Secret Service agents scrambling to Donald Trump’s side at his first event since canceling Friday night’s Chicago rally under a cloud of violence.
Agents swarmed the combative candidate at a Dayton, Ohio rally Saturday morning after a protester hurdled a railing and tried to clamber onto the stage.
The demonstrator, who made his dash from behind Trump’s right shoulder, was wrestled to the ground by several agents as the crowd roared in approval.
EDITORIAL: DONALD TRUMP, HOOLIGAN IN CHIEF
The barely fazed billionaire, who at first ducked when a woman near him screamed, rattled on after the disturbance.
JOHN LEGEND BRANDS DONALD TRUMP ‘RACIST’
“I was ready for him, but it’s much easier if the cops do it,” Trump told the crowd.
The protester was identified as Thomas Dimassimo, 22, who was arrested for disorderly conduct and “inducing panic,” according to local reports.
"Go back to Africa," suggests camo-clad Trump supporter. Video: pic.twitter.com/apQ1hD14D5
— tonydokoupil (@tonydokoupil) March 12, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
“Y’all stop acting like Donald ain’t flinch and get shook,” Dimassimo, who helped lead an anti-racism protest last year as a student at Wright State University, tweeted afterward.
Trump later described the man as “possibly ISIS-related” and expressed disgust that he wasn’t thrown in jail.
QUIZ: WHO SAID IT? TRUMP, HITLER, MUSSOLINI OR STALIN?
“For a judge to let him go, is incredible,” Trump said.
The GOP front-runner’s volatile campaign stops have turned into maelstroms, with protesters and supporters squaring off.
The afternoon and evening rallies Saturday followed a similar script as protesters repeatedly interrupted Trump, who seemed to revel in badmouthing the demonstrators as they were dragged outside.
Trump’s final campaign event in Kansas City got off to a surreal start as protester interruptions prevented him from delivering more than two sentences at a time.
“Out. Out. Out. Get ’em out of here,” Trump kept barking, sounding more like a saloon keeper than a presidential candidate.
Through 20 minutes of disturbances, Trump, eschewed any discussion of , devoted nearly the same amount of time to reflect on all the rowdiness at his recent events. He even vowed to file charges against future protesters to “ruin the rest of their lives.”
Outside the Arvest Bank Theater, police used pepper-spray to disperse protesters, but there were no immediate reports of widespread arrests or serious injuries.
At the morning event in Dayton, an unrepentant Trump blamed his canceled Chicago rally the previous night on “professional” protesters sent to disrupt his campaign.
Once the Chicago rally was shelved, tensions escalated into aggression with Trump supporters fist fighting in an ugly scene. Cops reported five arrests.
“All of a sudden, a planned attack came out of nowhere,” Trump told the raucous crowd in Dayton. “Professional people. All done by a group, all very professionally done. A disgrace, if you want to know the truth.”
Trump said the event at the University of Illinois Chicago Pavilion was canceled out of concerns for the safety of his supporters — and he actually pointed the finger at Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ backers for the trouble.
“Some (protesters) represented Bernie, our communist friend,” Trump said. “… He should really get up and say to his people, ‘Stop. Stop.’ Bernie, not me.”
Sanders shot back that his supporters are not the ones instigating trouble. The unrest flows, he said, from people “responding to a candidate who has, in fact, in many ways encouraged violence.”
Later Saturday, and just moments after Trump took the stage, protesters interrupted an event in Cleveland, where the Republican convention will be held in July.
Trump’s defiant attitude when faced with criticism for his hate-spewing remarks targeting Muslims, Hispanics and women, and for the violence now commonplace at his rallies — has angered his detractors.
“If I had said any of the things Trump has been saying, they would have ran me out of the race,” Rev. Al Sharpton said Saturday. “He says things for which he does not have to take responsibility.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio was more straight forward.
“I didn’t realize this was in question,” de Blasio tweeted. “Behaves like a racist, speaks like a racist …of course @RealDonaldTrump is a racist.”
President Obama, speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in Dallas, said those who aspire to lead the country “should be trying to bring us together and not turning us against one another.”
Saturday’s drama was just the latest in a growing number of stomach-turning frays that have followed Trump’s traveling circus of a campaign.
Video was released Friday that shows Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski grabbing Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields’s arm as she attempted to ask the candidate a question.
Fields filed a complaint with police against Lewandowski, the Jupiter, Florida, police department said.
The uproar surrounding Trump has not stopped the real estate mogul from leading in the race ahead of Tuesday’s major primary battles in Missouri, Ohio, and Florida.
Voters went to the polls Saturday for minor contests in the District of Columbia, Wyoming, and Guam.
Ted Cruz scored a resounding victory in Wyoming, winning 66% of the vote. Marco Rubio came in second with 19.5%, followed by Trump in third with 7.2%.
Rubio was the winner in Washington D.C., garnering 37.3% of the vote. Ohio Gov. John Kasich took second place with 35.5% and Trump was third again with 13.8%.
Guam’s Republican Party met Saturday to elect delegates, but all remain uncommitted except for one, who has pledged support for Cruz.
