Trump turns to bikers for support at Rolling Thunder rally for war veterans

Days after clinching enough delegates for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump stopped by a biker rally marking the Memorial Day weekend in an appearance aimed at channeling his anti-Washington appeal.

“He speaks his mind. We bikers are about freedom - we’re all best friends when we ride together, even if we don’t know each other. And we all just feel like he’s one of us,” said Jeff Memges, 51, from Woodbridge, Virginia. He said that Trump’s appeal among the biker community runs deep because “there’s no support among us for the Washington establishment.”

Trump told a modest crowd of veterans and motorcycle enthusiasts near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington that the US treats “illegal immigrants” better than its military veterans. “We’re not going to allow that to happen any longer,” he said.

The presumptive 2016 Republican presidential nominee has made few, if any, adjustments to his standard stump remarks as he works to widen his appeal for November’s general election after clinching the party’s nomination. On Sunday he again excoriated the Obama administration for its free-trade deals and immigration policy.

The real-estate mogul has angered some veterans in the past, particularly with his attacks on Senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war. But there was mostly support for the real-estate-developer-turned-politician at the annual Rolling Thunder rally.

“People think Rolling Thunder is just all about riding on motorcycles - it’s not,” said Heidi Macomber, 44, who made a two-day trek on her Harley-Davidson from Bowling Green, Kentucky. “We all ride together to make a lot of noise for our veterans and our POWs and those missing in action. Yeah, we have a lot fun doing it, but there’s a deeper meaning to the noise we create. I think it’s the same with Mister Trump, too.”