Progressive students and residents tell Trump and his supporters to leave State College

As temperatures dropped to 50 degrees in central Pennsylvania on Saturday, the situation intensified ahead of the Nov. 7 election.

This was the case with State College, as former President Donald Trump first mentioned two possible stops at Penn State. His presence sparked a challenge from two grassroots organizations and several others on campus.

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

“Dare to fight, dare to win… Make racists afraid again!” the crowd chanted phrases including “Lock up the racists!” and “Get the MAGA out of town!”

The march sparked protests from people standing in line hoping to get into Trump’s overcrowded rally.

“Dick Cheney loves you!” one witness chanted at the group. Others derided the group as delusional, mentally ill, or “woke.”

Some Trump supporters took the media attention as their chance to be in the spotlight and proudly stepped out in front of protesters – and cameras – to dance. One woman waved a cardboard Donald Trump mask in front of the crowd.

Once the group had walked down Curtin Road to the end of the line, reaching the security checkpoint in the middle, they jumped off and walked another loop or two.

The protest was mostly 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 turned back onto Curtin Road towards University Drive. Honj said a protester grabbed his MAGA flag, while one masked protester later said Honj pushed the flag against the posters. Several other masked protesters pretended to be unaware of the event that had taken place before them.

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

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

After making two loops in front of the Bryce Jordan Center, protesters headed down Curtin Road, passing several students playing pickleball in front of the Wagner Building, which houses the Penn State Reserve Officer Training Corps, which includes Air Force, Army and Navy ROTC.

A student committee organizer said places like the Wagner Building are turning Penn State students into the next “war criminal” generals.

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

Organizers said they would organize the protest in two days. They acquire new members through word of mouth and place them in new member cohort programs while conducting training sessions on group policies. They teach security and defense, and how to talk about history and political theory – all in order to have a “disciplined and highly organized formation.”

Indeed, as reporters sought to interview members of the group, one or two masked individuals appeared nearby. If strangers the group didn’t recognize approached too quickly, the group of six members immediately formed a semicircle around them, throwing around words like “de-escalation” to discourage violence.

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

Other protesters in the community formed their own groups and held their own signs throughout the afternoon. One cluster set up a station at 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 waited in line and circulated back and forth with them.

Penn State trustee Jay Paterno stopped and unzipped his Penn State windbreaker to show several protesters that he, too, was wearing a 2024 Harris and Walz jersey.

He refused to give an interview, claiming that he was only on a daytime walk, did not realize what was happening and did not want to get involved.

Paterno unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic Party’s nomination for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in 2014.