As temperatures dipped into the 50s in central Pennsylvania on Saturday, things were heating up in the final campaign leading up to the Nov. 7 election.

This was the case in State College when former President Donald Trump made the first two possible stops at Penn State. His presence sparked a challenge from two grassroots organizations and a handful of others on campus.

About 50 protesters carrying signs emblazoned with progressive rhetoric marched down University Drive and bypassed the Bryce Jordan Center on Curtin Road, loudly denouncing racism, fascism and the excesses of capitalism.

“Dare to fight, dare to win… Scare the racists again!” the crowd chanted, among other phrases, such as “Silence the racists again!” and “Kick MAGA out of town!” »

The march sparked a ruckus from those waiting in line hoping to get into Trump’s overbooked rally.

“Dick Cheney loves you guys!” » chanted a passerby to the group. Others mocked the group as delusional, mentally ill or “woke.”

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Some Trump supporters seized the media attention as their own chance for the spotlight and strutted in front of protesters — and cameras — to dance. A woman held up a cardboard mask representing Donald Trump in front of the crowd.

After the group walked along Curtin Road to the end of the line, reaching the security checkpoint in the center, they jumped back and walked another loop or two.

The protest was generally peaceful, with one exception: a brief altercation between several protesters and a Penn State junior who identified himself as “Honj.”

The fight broke out as protesters were returning to Curtin Road, towards University Drive. Honj said one protester grabbed his MAGA flag, while a masked protester later said Honj was pushing against posters with the flag. Several other masked protesters feigned ignorance of the event unfolding before them.

“We are working people. We never planned to engage in any form of physical violence – we are just here to show up and take up space,” said this organizer. “But we believe in self-defense. This is America: anyone who is attacked has the right to defend themselves. But we don’t initiate.

“It’s (an expletive), it’s a mental illness,” Honj later told a student journalist. “It’s time to take back our country.”

After making two loops in front of the Bryce Jordan Center, protesters left on Curtin Road past some undergraduates playing pickleball in front of the Wagner Building – home to Penn State’s Reserve Officer Training Corps, including ROTC of the Air Force, Army and Navy.

The student committee organizer said places like the Wagner building make Penn State students the next “war criminal” general.

“It’s blood money. We can’t have that (on our campus),” the organizer said. “They send our poor children to fight in the wars of the rich. »

Organizers said they organized the protest over two days. They attract new members through word of mouth and place them in new member cohort programs, providing training sessions on the group’s principles. They teach security and defense, and how to talk about history and political theory – all with the goal of having a “disciplined, highly organized education.”

Indeed, while journalists were looking for interview opportunities with members of the group, one or two masked individuals appeared nearby. If strangers the group didn’t recognize approached too quickly, a group of six members would immediately form a semi-circle around them, calling out words like “de-escalate” to deter violent interference.

The Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity and the People’s Defense Front were the largest group of protesters, but they were not the only one.

Other community protesters formed their own groups and held their own signs throughout the afternoon. A cluster set up a station on the corner of University Drive and Curtin Road to show support for Democratic candidates Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

Another group of students formed near the entrance to the Bryce Jordan Center, where Trump supporters lined up and heckled with them.

Penn State administrator Jay Paterno stopped and opened a Penn State windbreaker to show a few protesters that he, too, was wearing a Harris and Walz 2024 shirt.

He declined an interview, saying he was only taking a daytime walk, didn’t realize what was happening and didn’t want to be involved.

Paterno unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in 2014.