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WNIJ and NPR offer special coverage of Election 2016. WNIJ News field reporters and NPR editors nationwide update election news all night.Links to Race ResultsFollow the NPR Live Election BlogLocal County-By-County Election Results

Thousands Come For Trump In Springfield

Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images
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NPR

More than 10,000 people came to Illinois’s capitol city last night to hear from Donald Trump, who’s leading Republican polls in the race for President. 

Trump spoke for more than an hour at the convention center. That’s just blocks away from the Old State Capitol, where President Barack Obama declared his candidacy in 2007. 

Trump criticized Obama's nuclear deal with Iran and says he wants to repeal Obama's signature health care law.

"We have incompetent people leading us. And we can't keep doing it,” Trump said. “We can't keep doing it."

In between calling for a repeal of Obamacare, criticizing Hillary Clinton and crowing about how he'll have Mexico build a wall separating it from the United States, Trump also shared his views on the Starbucks red cup controversy that has gained popularity on social media.

Some Christians are upset with the cups' new design, which doesn't feature reindeer or ornaments, like in years' past.

TRUMP: "Did you read about Starbucks? No more Merry Christmas on Starbucks. No more." CROWD: "Boo!"

He told them Starbucks leases a successful store in, Trump Tower, but he says "maybe we should boycott Starbucks. Seriously. I don't care. By the way, that’s the end of that lease. But who cares."

People cheered when Trump went on to say that if he becomes President "we're all going to be saying Merry Christmas again. That I can tell you. That I can tell you."

Trump did not take questions from local reporters.

Another Republican presidential candidate visited Illinois before the GOP debate in Milwaukee. Former Ohio Governor John Kasich held a smaller rally at a Chicago restaurant, the Billy Goat Tavern.

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