On a frigid night when Hillary Clinton drew an estimated 600 people to a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, Donald Trump was a world away in icier Massachusetts and out-drawing her twelve-fold – including one man who brought a pocket full of handgun ammunition.
New England voters gave him a warm reception in the college town of Lowell on Monday after braving 19-degree weather and 10 mph winds as they stood in an hours-long Secret Service line to see him at the Paul Tsongas Center, a 7,300-seat arena that was packed to the rafters.
'You guys are tough!' Trump roared as he took the stage.
The night's entertainment came in all forms. Two girls, age 9 and 10, stood on their chairs and chanted 'Build That Wall!' during moments of silence, a reference to Trump's pledge to wall off America's southern border with Mexico.
WHO'S TOUGHER? Trump had protesters ejected from the Paul Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts on Monday but saluted his audience for standing in sub-freezing weather for hours just to see him speak
DISSENT: Protesters who oppose Trump's rhetoric on illegal immigration provided momentary blips in a 53-minute speech
Security screening added time to Monday night's entry lines. The Secret Service doesn't stand down in inclement weather, and for good reason.
DailyMail.com saw agents patting down one man – a self-identified Trump event volunteer in the building three hours ahead of time, who repeatedly triggered metal-detecting wand alarms – only to find about 10 rounds of handgun ammo in an inside pocket of his jacket.
The bullets were confiscated. A Secret Service supervisor on the scene had no comment.
But the man was allowed to enter after offering a sheepish grin and a quiet 'sorry.'
No apologies would come from the smattering of protesters who interrupted Trump's 53-minute speech more than a half-dozen times – a common sight as the real estate tycoon stumps before crowds that rival those of some professional basketball teams.
A few on Monday yelled 'black lives matter.' Two screamed that immigration 'isn't criminal.' Another boomed 'Bernie Sanders for President!'
After one trio was ejected – Trump had bellowed 'Get em out!' – he turned to the audience and grinned.
'Isn't this more fun than a regular boring rally?' he asked, adding with relish that 'right now they're being sent out into the cold.'
SHOCK AND AWE: Robin Roy (center) reacted when Trump greeted her on his way into the arena on Monday
'GOOD JOB!': Trump congratulated an audience member who shouted 'Obama sucks!'
Reacting to police leading a passive man up a set of concrete steps after he shouted a slogan for no more than five seconds, Trump turned the moment into a jab at Clinton.
'They remind me a little bit of Hillary,' he said, drawing laughter. 'No energy, no stamina, no strength.'
Clinton said Monday in Iowa that she won't play a tit-for-tat game with The Donald during the presidential primary season.
'I've adopted a New Year's resolution,' she told a voter in the town of Cedar Rapids. 'I'm going to let him live in his alternate reality and I'm not going to respond.'
Ted Cruz drew an elbow from Trump, although he didn't call him out by name.
Cruz has recently said he, like Trump, would wall off the U.S. from Mexico – a position he first articulated in 2012 when he was running for his Senate seat.
But Trump laughed it off, saying, 'He's a politician so he wouldn't know where to start. I know how to build a wall.'
A handful of friendly interruptions Monday night fed Trump's fire instead of fighting it.
One man early in the evening screamed, 'Obama sucks!' during a quiet moment of the billionaire's stump soliloquy about the White House's nuclear deal with Iran.
Cue the thunderous applause.
'You see, I'm not allowed to say that,' Trump mused. 'So – good job! Ah, that's beautiful!'
The Donald asked one man to stand up so thousands could admire his shirt – which matched Trump up with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady as a dream team.
'For The Win!' it said on the back.
'Tom Brady, injured, is still better than anybody else,' Trump said, drawing thunder and hoots from the NFL playoff-hungry home crowd.
He lost some of that good will by blaming the Bay State for giving America its current secretary of state, John Kerry – a longtime former U.S. senator from Massachusetts.
'Kerry has no idea what the hell he's doing,' The Donald said. 'He comes from your parts. I blame you! He comes from your area!'
'Hey, New Hampshire: Let's blame Massachusetts!'
Monday's rally precedes another appearance by the Republican front-runner on Tuesday, upstate in New Hampshire.
Trump leads in polls there, with the all-important primary contest looming barely a month away.
The Donald also hasn't let any grass grow beneath his feet in Iowa, a state where he now trails Texas Sen. Ted Cruz but has launched a multimillion-dollar television ad campaign to generate new momentum.
He will give two separate speeches Saturday in Iowa, including one at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake – the site of rocker Buddy Holly's last concert before his fatal plane crash in February 1959.
But first he'll stop in Burlington, Vermont, where Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders was once mayor. The move, he said backstage before the rally, is largely about getting northern New Hampshire voters to see him before next month's primary.
'Vermont is close to here,' he said.
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