Desperate for attention and eager to turn out a yuge crowd in a blue state to stoke rumors that CA's election was stolen by "illegals" when Kamala Harris wins its 54 electoral votes November 5th, convicted felon Donald Trump rolled into the Coachella Valley on Saturday to the joy and heat stroke of local bootlicking influencers, Christian nationalists, and the Nazis and Proud Boys who love them.
While the Trump campaign claimed a hundred thousand attendees, the Riverside County Fire Marshall approved a permit for a maximum of 15,000 at the venue.
News of the rally spread quickly through the social media bubble that appears to be the primary organizing space for our era's far right big tent of homeschooling mama bears, anti-government militias, Dominionist pastors, reactionary grifters, and men with records of domestic violence charges. Attendees arrived to one of three off-site parking lots as early as 6am, after which they were bussed to the rally site where they stood in 100 degree weather for hours awaiting their daddy king.
At the front of the crowd were a slew of faces connected to the wave of extremist anti-public education, anti-LGBTQ+ radicalism that has plagued Southern California for years now. Read on for a (non-exhaustive) who's who of people who need their heads and hard drives examined...
Leave Our Kids Alone spokesperson/Red Angeles podcaster Manuk Grigoryan started things off strong, riding what he excitedly referred to as the Proud Boy/Armenian Power Bus and leading the gang in a chant of "leave our kids alone."
Manuk and Louie Flores both flashed the Proud Boy's signature "OK" sign en route to the venue. Louie and Manuk have both appeared at volatile school board meetings in Glendale, Chino Valley, and Redlands. Later, Manuk shared a photograph of a group of Inland Empire Proud Boys who showed up in full colors ready to "stand by" for their leader.
Manuk also posed with Riverside county sheriffs (one flashing a hand sign of some kind), joined transphobe/dad-who's-not allowed-to-see-his-child Adam Vena and frequent Glendale city council meeting attendee Miran Nagpetyan at the front of the crowd. Noted local Neo Nazi Narek Palyan was also there, sporting his dark LOKA gear, lest anyone doubt the group's alignment.
It wasn't just a SSausage-fest either-- the ladies turned out too, bedazzled in their fascist finest:
Beverly Hills Freedom Rally organizer/creator of the worst music video (trigger warning) you'll ever watch, Shiva Bagheri was of course near the front of the crowd and in high spirits. Shiva attended violent school board meetings at GUSD, was detained by police at the LOKA march in DTLA and is a frequent disruptor of local civic meetings and events.
Fired Christian nationalist teacher Jessica Tapia donned matching hats with extremist homeschool mom/gubernatorial candidate Sarah Stephens. Tapia is connected with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, an extremist law firm now on board local nazi teacher Ray Shelton's case against GUSD. Stephens is a pastor from San Diego and founder of Make California Gold Again, a far right Christian Nationalist organization. With her org, she's participated in numerous anti-vax, anti-pandemic safety, and anti-lgbtq+ hate rallies, including one in which she is alleged to have driven the getaway car after one of her group assaulted a journalist with a metal pole.
Almost-recalled bigoted Temecula School board member Jen Wiersma attended with some other blondes.
Despite triple digit temperatures and reports of attendees "dropping like flies" in the afternoon sun, folks present appeared to be trying to project a positive image of the event. Late night reports that shuttle buses had abandoned thousands at the site, leaving them to walk in the dark back to the parking lots were deleted from social media after folks realized they were making their cult leader look bad (of course the internet is forever).
In a bizarre day-after twist, Riverside County Sheriff and Trump-loving extremist Chad Bianco gave a press conference claiming his deputies had prevented a third assassination attempt from occurring at the rally, arresting Vem Miller (formerly Vem Miller-Yenovkian) for "possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine." While feds quickly corrected the record to say there was no evidence a shooting was planned, the internet was quick to point out Miller's apparently close relationship with the Trump camp, Republican party, and far right politics overall. Friends of Miller spoke of him as a devoted Trump fan and his social media and professional website revealed his extensive interaction with right wing figures and media work in support of far right efforts.
Local researchers were interested to note Miller's mutual connections with a number of local accounts connected with recent anti-public school/anti-LGBTQ+ extremism:
