Last time Donald Trump was in town, they built a wall. But this time, a prominent progressive advocacy group in Colorado is encouraging opponents of the Republican presidential nominee to stand down.

“Donald Trump’s entire political movement is built on irrational anger and confrontation – so let’s not give him what he wants,” wrote ProgressNow Colorado director Ian Silverii in an email to the group’s supporters.

“The only way we’re going to defeat negativity and pessimism is with positivity and optimism,” he added.

Trump was scheduled to speak at a Colorado Springs town hall on Friday afternoon and a Denver rally on Friday night. He was also attending a fundraiser in Colorado Springs during his visit to the battleground state.

Republicans nominated Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a week ago at their national convention in Cleveland. The Colorado events were Trump’s first public appearances after Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton accepted her party’s nomination Thursday night in Philadelphia.

ProgressNow Colorado organized construction of a 30-foot wall of cardboard boxes – and then filled them with donations for a local homeless shelter – when Trump appeared on July 1 in Denver to speak at the opening of the Western Conservative Summit.

Meanwhile, several hundred demonstrators on both sides of the Trump divide squared off outside the Colorado Convention Center, where Trump spoke to an audience of a couple thousand. Authorities said they arrested three people after a shoving match broke out between protesters.

Silverii said before the July 1 visit that his organization wanted to avoid the kind of confrontations that had been occurring at Trump events and instead stage a “visual protest” that mocked the wall Trump has said he’ll build along the Mexican border.

This time, he said, Silverii preferred to starve the Trump campaign of any additional publicity the left-leaning organization might supply by staging an event.

Not all Trump foes heeded Silverii’s advice. A few dozen protesters lined a roadway near the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, waving signs and shouting at Trump supporters who were waiting to get into his event at the school.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com