“So average.” Kicked up a notch in Donald Trump’s spicy punchline kitchen, those were the Republican presidential candidate’s words to describe his opponent, Hillary Clinton’s nomination acceptance speech in Philadelphia a day earlier. Trump delivered the made-fresh remarks to a gathering of rambunctious fans in a jam-packed events center at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs Friday, featuring Republican U.S. Senate candidate Darryl Glenn and Colorado Springs U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-CD5.

The large batch of southern Colorado supporters met billionaire real estate mogul Trump with a warm welcome, setting what was pegged by the campaign as a town hall meeting with a more rally-like tone, full of chants for his conservative red-meat lines and jeers for when Clinton came up – and she came up often – in his remarks.

Inside the event center was a sea of signs that read “Make America Great Again,” and “Trump-Pence 2016.” The crowd lifting the visual props to the sky listened intently to Trump’s signature, winding speech on issues ranging from the media to his newly-minted official Democratic opponent to clarifying prior remarks.

The Speech

As Trump took the stage, he criticized the local fire marshal saying that the safety official was “probably a Democrat,” and “they don’t know what the hell they’re doing,” for not letting in thousands of ticket holders into the Gallogly Events Center, which only holds 1,500 people at max capacity.

“We have thousands of people in a room next door,” Trump said. “We have thousands of people trying to get in and we have a fire marshal that says ‘No, we can’t allow more people in.'”

Trump went on to chide, “Maybe because they’re a Hillary person?” He made the same remark at the end of his hourlong address.

He spoke on the television ratings between the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and how the GOP pulled in more views for his nomination acceptance speech than Clinton did for hers. Teasing out a game of compare and contrast between the two conventions, he also criticized the DNC for not having any American flags displayed on its first day.

Continuing his calling out onto the carpet of the Democratic Party, Trump blasted Democrats for their poor treatment for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, I-VT, during the presidential primary. Trump said that Sanders had “sold his soul to the devil” in his decision to support and nominate Clinton for president.

Trump then directed the discussion to recent headlines in the media claiming that he wanted to “hit” certain speakers that spoke at the last night of the Democrat National Convention that disparaged his character. CNN reports that Trump stated he wanted to “hit a number of those speakers so hard, their heads would spin,” at a preceding rally in Davenport, Iowa. Trump asserted to the Colorado Springs crowd that he meant to verbally hit the speakers with insults.

Throwing another critique at Clinton, Trump recollected several anecdotes about his children and peppered his remarks with numerous past experiences attempting to qualify his arguments and claims in the speech. Trump also spent some time trying to set records straight, addressing numerous controversies centered on him such as video showing him making fun of a disabled reporter in a speech during the Republican primary.

Recognizing his military surroundings

During his remarks, Trump acknowledged the large military presence in Colorado Springs and made it clear that he supports the military and its veterans. He said the federal government must go back to using “couriers” to deliver classified information to high-ranking officials, citing his concerns over Chinese and Russian hackers as threats to national security.

Trump’s stance on foreign policy was no different, as he indicated that the United States is paying for both NATO and the United Nations. Trump also mentioned that he wanted to use NATO to fight terrorist groups like ISIS and “make people (NATO members) pay.”

Having met earlier with the editorial board for The Colorado Springs Gazette, Trump spoke at length about fixing the VA, referencing the over budget, behind schedule Aurora Veterans Affairs Hospital project that has cost over $1 billion.

Trump told the Gazette editorial board that, “he’d open private hospitals to veterans frustrated by long wait times at Veterans Affairs hospitals, and he’d support a first-in-the-nation test program in Colorado Springs that would pay for vets to receive private health care,” in his first 100 days of office if elected.

GOP U.S. Senate Candidate Darryl Glenn, an Air Force Academy graduate himself, shared with The Colorado Statesman that he was pleased with what Trump said about supporting veterans and the military.

“[Trump] was focused on the fact about the importance of our military, and he highlighted the inefficiencies with the VA,” Glenn said. “That’s something extremely important to military veterans in this community.”

The Opening Acts

Being almost an hour late for his 2 p.m. appearance, several local speakers had more time than usual to rev up and otherwise fully utilize the presence of a presidential election sized crowd. U.S. Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-CO-5) and Glenn called for backing the Trump-Pence ticket, and Lamborn told the audience it was time for Republicans to do the work to elect Glenn in the November General Election, throwing out Democratic incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet.

“We are going out in November … we’re going to elect Darryl Glenn as U.S. Senator,” Lamborn said to the cheering crowds, “we’re going to elect Mike Pence as vice president and we are going to elect Donald Trump as president.”

Glenn, a man given recent prime-time nationwide television space on the airwaves (one that many stations cut away from to the chagrin of Glenn’s supporters), was given some perhaps more-valuable local impromptu time to speak to his local constituents and other Colorado voters on hand at the event – always “ladies and gentlemen” to the El Paso County Commissioner.

“This (Colorado) is a battleground state,” Glenn said. “Let’s turn out for Donald Trump and let’s go win this thing, ladies and gentlemen.”

Glenn also told The Statesman later on in an interview that, “I think [Trump] showed the importance of Colorado and in particular El Paso County. This is not only the most important battleground state but this is the most important battleground county when you look at the conservative turnout we must get in this county.”

Mark “Oz” Geist, the author of 13 Hours, also joined a line up of speakers that included a millennial “conservative Republican” woman who spoke on the inherent problems of living off government welfare, and an African-American preacher who spoke prominently in support of Trump’s candidacy.

Other happenings at the rally

The protesters outside sporting pro-Hillary Clinton apparel and holding their signs that read “Dump Trump” and the like, held their line through the full Trump-length rally. They were a small group compared to other turnouts, but the demonstrators were nonetheless vocal in their anti-Trump chants, engaging by-standing supporters while police officers stood by attentively. The middle of a UCCS side road that was occupied by dozens of people.

Some students and professors at UCCS also joined the anti-Trump turnout and protested his coming to the campus. In addition, petition circulators for several proposed ballot initiatives were on hand, promoting causes like the end of life options proposal or the proposal to increase cigarette taxes to fund cancer research. Official Colorado Democrats were also on-site seeking volunteers and registering people to vote.

Trump wasn’t all pointed attacks in his appearance. He brought up the names of two well-known women to lighten the atmosphere a bit. He said that he thought Chelsea Clinton did very well in her national convention speech and noted that she is friends with his daughter Ivanka. Trump showed a touch of New York class, joking that he wished the two women weren’t friends “because it would be a lot easier!”