Trump, speaking in Arizona, continues to rile with his immigration views

PHOENIX -- Donald Trump railed against Mexico, immigrants living in the United States illegally, his Republican and Democratic presidential rivals and a host of other targets before a cheering audience of thousands at the Phoenix convention center Saturday.

Trump's speeches there and hours earlier to a libertarian group in Las Vegas were replete with tangents and insults leveled at business partners such as Univision and NBC that have dropped him in the wake of his comments that Mexican immigrants bring drugs and crime to the United States and are rapists.

"These are people that shouldn't be in our country," he said in a rambling, angry speech. "They flow in like water." A man shouted from the crowd, "Build a wall!"

Basking in polls that show he is near the front of the crowded Republican field, Trump took glee in mocking former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, an establishment favorite. "How can I be tied with this guy?" Trump asked the crowd. "He's terrible. He's weak on immigration."

When a group of young Latinos in Phoenix unfurled a banner and began chanting insults, they were quickly drowned out by the crowd. Nearby Trump supporters began to grab at them, tearing at the banner and pulling and pushing at the protesters.

Security staff managed to get to the group and escorted them out as Trump resumed speaking.

"I wonder if the Mexican government sent them over here," he said. "I think so."

He also criticized Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, Macy's, NBC, Caroline Kennedy and the news media. When he was done, he walked offstage to Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It."

"The silent majority is back and we're going to take the country back," he said.

In less than a month since officially entering the campaign, Trump has gone from an embarrassment to a cause for serious alarm among top Republicans in Washington and nationwide.

On Wednesday, Reince Priebus, the head of the Republican National Committee, responding to demands from worried party leaders, spent nearly an hour with Trump, urging him to tone down inflammatory comments that have infuriated Latinos.

In Trump's version, that conversation was "a congratulatory call." He said of the GOP elders: "When they know me, they will love me."

There is little they can do about the mogul and reality-TV star, who draws sustenance from controversy and attention. Rather than dialing it down, he has amplified his remarks.

"I think he'll self-destruct relatively quickly. The dynamic, I think, will change very dramatically and Trump will be yesterday's news," said former Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah). "But . . . if Trump can keep this going, it will be very worrisome."

The fear among Bennett and others is that Trump will set back the party's efforts to rehabilitate its image and broaden its appeal. And it appears likely that he will be onstage in the presidential debates that begin next month -- a dissonant figure in what GOP leaders had hoped to present as a substantive, experienced and appealing field.

One GOP state party chairman, speaking on the condition of anonymity so he could be frank, said of Trump: "He's already done some damage, and it could be substantial. . . . He could be one of the reasons we lose. It's that serious. There's nothing we can do about it, and that's what's so scary."

Meanwhile, Democrats, Clinton included, are doing all they can to make the rest of the GOP accountable for Trump's words.