California police on guard after violence mars Trump rally

Anaheim: California authorities braced for unrest Wednesday at Donald Trump's rally, a day after violence marred an event by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Chaos in the southwestern city of Albuquerque, New Mexico -- where anti-Trump protesters hurled rocks and police fired smoke grenades -- overshadowed Trump's Tuesday win in the Washington state primary.

It has also put authorities in Anaheim California, site of Trump's Wednesday rally, on alert as they seek to avoid a repeat of the New Mexico melee, with police warning that violence will lead to "immediate arrest."

"Anaheim will vigorously protect the people's right to assemble and their right to peacefully protest," Anaheim Police Chief Raul Quezada said ahead of Trump's rally scheduled for noon (1900 GMT).

"But we will not tolerate any violence that interferes with those rights."

Several Trump rallies have drawn protests, including one in Chicago in March when his supporters clashed with protesters.

Trump has been accused of inciting violence at his rallies.

Unrest erupted Tuesday evening outside Trump's Albuquerque event when protesters burst through metal barriers and tried to storm the venue where the provocative Republican was speaking.

-- 'Go back to Mexico' --

Several in the crowd of hundreds threw burning T-shirts, bottles and rocks at police, while police on horseback and officers in riot gear used pepper spray and smoke grenades to try to disperse the crowd.

Albuquerque police described the violence as a "riot" and said several officers were injured. At least one person was arrested.

The protesters, some of whom waved Mexican flags, chanted expletives about Trump and taunted his supporters. Some also waved signs with anti-Trump slogans in Spanish.

"Go back to Mexico," one man yelled at protesters, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

Trump has proposed building a wall on the US border with Mexico, branded Mexican immigrants rapists, and urged the deportation of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic residents of any US state, and polls show that Hispanics overwhelmingly oppose Trump's immigration proposals.

Its Governor Susana Martinez, the nation's only Hispanic governor and head of the Republican Governors Association, has criticized Trump's remarks on immigration and was absent from Tuesday's event.

Trump addressed a rally of about 4,000 people but was frequently interrupted by protesters, the Journal reported.

Following Tuesday night's unrest, Trump tweeted that "the protesters in New Mexico were thugs who were flying the Mexican flag. The rally inside was big and beautiful, but outside, criminals!"

In the latest example of behavior that may compound Trump's efforts to win over skeptical voters, Trump assailed Martinez -- a popular governor seen as someone who could help a Republican nominee win support from Hispanics and women -- on her home turf, saying she was not cutting it as governor.

- 'Will not be bullied' -

"She's got to do a better job, OK?" Trump told the crowd.

Martinez's office responded swiftly, saying in a statement that the governor "will not be bullied into supporting a candidate until she is convinced that candidate will fight for New Mexicans."

The blunt response highlights the tensions within the party even as it prepares to crown Trump as its nominee.

House Speaker Paul Ryan -- the nation's top elected Republican -- said he was not yet prepared to endorse Trump for president.

"I haven't made a decision," Ryan told reporters, two weeks after he met with Trump to discuss ways to unify the party behind his remarkable White House run.

Former House majority leader Tom DeLay had tougher words for the presumptive nominee, calling Trump's criticism of a popular conservative Latina "stupid politics."

"It blows my mind," DeLay told MSNBC. "Where is he going to get his coalition to win?"

Following his Washington state victory, Trump has now amassed 1,229 delegates, according to a CNN tally -- just eight shy of the 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination.

Trump will cross the threshold June 7, when California and four other states vote on the final day of the Republican primary contest.

The political neophyte will be officially installed as flagbearer at the Republican Party's nominating convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July.

He pivoted to the general election weeks ago, relentlessly criticizing his likely Democratic rival.

"Crooked Hillary Clinton just can't close the deal with Bernie," Trump tweeted Wednesday, referring to Clinton's challenger Senator Bernie Sanders.

The former secretary of state has returned fire, although she is still engaged in the final stages of her Democratic battle against Sanders.

And on Wednesday the scandal over her use of a private email server while secretary of state resurfaced, with a starkly critical report by the State Department's inspector general finding she had not sought permission to conduct official business on her personal account.

At a Buena Park, California rally, Clinton blasted Trump's policies as trickle-down economics "on steroids."