Secret Service officers rushed on stage to protect US Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump during a disturbance at a rally on Saturday, a day after rowdy protests shut down his event in Chicago.
Trump briefly ducked at the podium and four Secret Service members scrambled to surround him after a man charged the stage at Dayton International Airport in Ohio, Reuters reported.
The incident further increased tension after Trump’s Chicago rally was scrapped amid chaotic scenes on Friday.
Trump’s Republican rivals hurled scorn at the New York billionaire, saying he helped create the nervous atmosphere that is now sweeping the race for the White House with his fiery rhetoric.
The scenes in Chicago followed a series of recent incidents of violence at Trump rallies, in which protesters and journalists have been punched, tackled and hustled out of venues, raising concerns about degrading security leading into the Nov. 8 election.
US President Barack Obama told a fundraising event in Dallas that political leaders “should be trying to bring us together and not turning us against one another”.
Trump was badly defeated in contests Saturday in the US capital and Wyoming, suggesting that the race for the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election is tightening.
The bombastic real estate mogul may be ahead in national polls and in party delegates, but Florida senator Marco Rubio easily defeated him in the Republican caucus in Washington. Rubio earned 37.3% of the vote against 35.5 for Ohio Governor John Kasich, and Trump was third, with 13.8% support.
In the western state of Wyoming, Texas Senator Ted Cruz crushed Trump by winning 66.3% of the ballots in a party caucus, far ahead of Rubio, his nearest rival, who earned 19.5% of the vote. Trump came in third with a measly 7.2%.
