'Chaos': RivCo Trump Rallygoers Get Stranded, Suffer Heat Exhaustion

COACHELLA, CA — Presidential candidate Donald Trump's rare rally in the Golden State on Saturday turned into a nightmare for many.

Several rallygoers suffered from heat exhaustion while hundreds of others became stranded in the dark miles from their cars after the event ended.

According to multiple accounts, the shuttle buses to and from the parking lot stopped running at some point, forcing groups to walk at least five miles to reach their vehicles.

The Riverside County Sheriff's Office confirmed that it had to help drive attendees back to their vehicles, department spokesperson Sergeant Wenndy Brito-Gonzalez told Patch.

The California Highway Patrol told multiple news outlets that traffic delays meant that shuttle bus drivers had already worked the maximum number of hours allowed.

"Coachella Mess. The venue where Trump held the rally is in the middle of nowhere and 5 miles from parking," one person with the username "BlueDream" said on X.

Footage posted by that user showed hundreds of people standing around in the dark. "Something went wrong," a person in the video says.

"Everyone's starting to freak out... Someone needs to investigate this now, everyone here is stranded," he said, adding that the parking lot was a "two-hour walk" away.

Many described the rally as chaotic, with at least one person collapsing while waiting in line to get in, footage posted to Instagram showed.

Some lined up in the heat as early as 7 a.m. to get into the fairgrounds for the Coalhoun Ranch rally that started at 5 p.m.

"The management was so poorly done. It was so dangerous," Dohaa the Explorer, who attended the rally, said in a video on his YouTube channel.

Temperatures lingered around 100 degrees for hours during the rally.

"And that sun is hot. I’ll tell you," Trump told the crowd at the podium.

This isn't the first time attendees of Trump's rallies have seen chaotic conditions, violence, arrests and gotten stranded in extreme weather conditions.

In 2020, hundreds of Trump rallygoers became stranded in the freezing cold at an airfield in Omaha, Nebraska after his speech, which was also in October. Seven were hospitalized after being exposed to temperatures in the mid-30s, dropping down to 27 degrees with winds, NBC News reported.

On Saturday, Trump's surprising return to California drew thousands of supporters donning MAGA merch and other Trump paraphernalia. The Press-Enterprise reported that the fire marshal approved a permit for 15,000 people to attend the rally at the fairgrounds.

The rally also featured actor Dennis Quaid and GOP rep. Matt Gaetz, who both spoke to the crowd.

In addition to many getting stranded and enduring desert heat, a woman was escorted from the rally for unknown reasons with Trump remarking: "She goes back home to mommy. 'Was that you, darling?' And then she gets the hell knocked out of her," as his fans cheered.

Trump's comment was heavily criticized online and in media reports as encouraging violence.

Meanwhile, a man described as heavily armed was arrested at the rally.

"As far as I'm concerned, a minimum of 25,000 people passed deputies with legitimate identification and didn't have guns," Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said. "I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt. I truly do believe that we prevented another assassination attempt."

The 49-year-old man from Las Vegas is suing Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, alleging civil rights violations, over the incident.

Vem Miller said in court papers that Bianco "intentionally, maliciously and with a blatant disregard for the truth, wanted to create a narrative so as to be viewed as a 'heroic' sheriff who saved presidential candidate Trump from a third assassination attempt."