Donald Trump speaks to Sarasota supporters at Robarts

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump listen to Trump speak during a rally at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, Monday, Nov. 23, 2015. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush both running.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump helicoptered into Sarasota on Saturday afternoon for his first campaign appearance since Thanksgiving, and protesters were ready for him.

Mr Trump drew condemnation from the New York Times – America’s most influential newspaper – after seeming to mock the speech and movements of one of its reporters, Serge Kovaleski for being disabled.

A crowd of about 50 protesters greeted patrons as they entered the Robarts Arena, blasting Trump for his stances in particular on immigration. But if these Republicans truly want to keep us safe, why don’t they ever raise the issue of right-wing terrorists? “There are a lot of reasons they should vote Republican”, said Mr Khan, now a senior fellow for Muslim-Christian understanding at the Institute for Global Engagement, an evangelical think-tank. They have radicalized people to commit violent crimes in recent years, such as the six Sikhs gunned down at a temple in Wisconsin in 2012 to the three people murdered at a Jewish Community Center in Kansas in 2014 by white supremacists. Brandon Phillips, the Georgia director of Trump’s campaign, deferred questions about the number of tickets distributed as of Friday to Hope Hicks, Trump’s national media spokeswoman.

Trump denied having any knowledge of who Kovalski is and any knowledge of his physical handicaps. By the time 60 minutes approached, and Trump showed no signs of winding down, people began filtering out. Trump produced a September 2001 Washington Post article written by Sergi Kovalski, that backed up Trump’s point that there were in fact celebrations taking place in New Jersey after the towers fell. “They’ll probably be out of business pretty soon”.

“The problem is, he’s using what he’s got to such a terrible degree, I think it’s disgraceful”, Trump said, saying The New York Times should apologize to him.

Phillips said details of the event are still being worked out, and he couldn’t say who might be introducing Trump.

The potency of comments criticizing Muslims was apparent even before recent attacks by extremists in France, Lebanon and Egypt.

Barbara Dickson, also from Ocala, said she thought the real estate mogul was “trying to dig himself out of the hole he dug himself into with that comment”.

Some are likely asking what right wing violence am I talking about?

He drew a far larger crowd than most candidates can muster, and it included considerably more younger people than typical Sarasota rallies, but few elected officials were present. “Today we have to be so politically correct”.