Roundup: Trump blasted for igniting "fire" between supporters and protesters

Nine months into his candidacy, Donald Trump had finally ignited a fire that even he could not control.

At least that's what his rivals were suggesting.

In the wake of conflicts on Friday between Trump's supporters and protesters at a rally in Chicago, Trump's rivals, both Republicans and Democrats, lined up to throw jabs at the belligerent Republican presidential front-runner, who had since Day One of his candidacy unleashed the pent-up fury of economically displaced working-class white Americans.

"Donald Trump is running a cynical campaign of hate and fear for one reason: to get votes," said Democrat Hillary Clinton on Sunday at an event in Ohio. "He's encouraging violence and chaos to get votes. He's pitting Americans against each other."

Trump's Republican rivals in the nomination contests also criticized the GOP front-runner, with Texas Senator Ted Cruz saying that Trump "affirmatively encourages violence."

Around the country, interruption by protesters had already become a fixture of Trump rallies that the campaign team even started teaching supporters how to handle possible confrontation with protesters who did not see eye to eye with Trump's anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim remarks.

"If a protester starts demonstrating in the area around you, please do not touch or harm the protester," said a scripted message that precedes all Trump allies. "Please hold a rally sign over your head and start chanting 'Trump! Trump! Trump!'"

Trump drew widespread criticism last June when he said in his presidential announcement speech that Mexico was sending "rapists" and drug dealers to the United States. Since that, the New York billionaire developer had repeatedly vowed, if elected president, to deport about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

In another outburst of emotional remarks, Trump called for a "total and complete" ban on Muslims entering the United States in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks last year.

However, his blunt and sometimes incendiary remarks about Latino immigrants and Muslims never seemed to take its toll on polling numbers.

Since last September, Trump had stood atop virtually all Republican polls, and according to the RealClearPolitic polling average, Trump now enjoys 36 percent of national support within the party, trailed by his nearest challenger Cruz at 21.8 percent.

According to a Washington Post analysis released in December, Trump's support skewed male, white, poor and uneducated.

Contrary to the conventional wisdom in this chaotic election cycle that Trump was appealing to bigotry and xenophobia among this constituency, several recent polls indicated that that might not be the case.

According to a study published in January by Working America, an organization affiliated to AFL-CIO, the largest labor union of the country, as far as issues were concerned, Trump's supporters rated "good jobs/the economy" as their priority, with "immigration" placed third among all matters the voters cared about.

Another survey from RAND Corporation also found out earlier this year that voters who agreed with the statement that "people like me don't have any say about what the government does" were 86 percent more likely to prefer Trump. Endit