Luis Miranda, communications director for the Democratic National Committee, stressed that the protesters were not connected to the party or Clinton’s campaign.

“Part of what we have to make clear is that these aren’t Democratic Party protests in any way,” Miranda said. “The vast majority of people who are protesting have done it peacefully and are protesting an ugly and divisive campaign.”…

The protests regularly feature oversize Mexican flags, presumably to protest the real estate mogul’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. Trump and his supporters have seized on the imagery to suggest that he is the target of an out-of-control and angry flank of the left that is hung up on identity politics.

“What Trump’s most ardent supporters want is this clash of political civilizations,” said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, who says he will not vote for Trump in November. “They want . . . to show that a lot of these anti-Trump protesters who are waving Mexican flags and attacking Trump people, that those protesters are standing in their way of making America great again.”