Trump holds raucous Ohio rally as he tries to shore up base voters for GOP

President Donald Trump on Monday kicked off a week of red-state campaigning with a raucous rally in Ohio, where Republicans are fighting to hold onto a Senate seat that could be key to the majority .

He spent portions of his nearly 90-minute remarks railing against Somali and Haitian communities, delivering red meat political attacks and catering to his base. He at times conjured two out-of-state Democrats — Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed — as bigger threats than former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who’s giving GOP Sen. Jon Husted a run for his money in a state that Trump had turned into a reliably red bastion.

After Ohio, Trump’s scheduled to hit Alaska and Montana — states he won by 13 and 20 points in 2024 — as his team banks on him juicing base turnout in conservative areas. But on Monday night — as Trump returned to the same arena where he held a packed 2017 ‘thank you’ tour — large sections of seating on the left and right of the press riser, which came with prime views of the president, were empty.

Still, it was a much livelier affair than some recent rallies, with two significant interruptions. At one point, a brawl appeared to break out between a protester wearing a “Release The Epstein Files” t-shirt and a rally-goer in the stands. Another interruption came from a young woman holding a Mexican flag.

A big part of Trump’s pitch was about immigration, returning to a theme he hit hard in 2024, when he repeated his false claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating their neighbors’ pets.

“Just look at what’s happening in the once great state of Minnesota,” he said, teeing up his attacks on Omar — a frequent target of his ire.

Federal officers executed a search warrant early Monday at the Washington, DC-area home of the congresswoman, according to a Justice Department spokesperson and a source familiar with the matter.

And while Trump insisted he was not involved in that search, he went on to call Omar — who’s a US citizen — a “disaster” and attack the country where she was born.

“[Rep. Omar] comes in from a country without laws, without police, without military, without — all they do is shoot each other — and she comes into our country, and she says, ‘I have a constitutional right,’” Trump said. “She’s got a constitutional right? She’s telling us about the Constitution, and she comes from one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet.”

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

As he launched into into a tirade against Somalis in the US, supporters in the audience began chanting “Deport!”

“They think they’re in Somalia, where they don’t have pants to wear,” Trump said at one point, going on to repeat his insult about “low IQ people.”

He made blue-state Minnesota the foil. “If you want to stop Ohio from being plundered, ransacked, and destroyed like Minnesota’s being destroyed, we’re going to stop it. Just like we did with Springfield, we’re going to stop it,” Trump said.

When the president turned to Brown — who holds a 6-point lead over Husted in CNN polling released last week — he tried to link the former three-term incumbent to national Democrats in more generic terms.

“Sherrod Brown is the candidate of the Marxists, the communists, the anti-American radicals, who want to tear down America’s heritage,” Trump said, arguing that he also wants the Midwest “turned into Mogadishu.”

Brown, a progressive populist first elected to the Senate in 2006, held onto his seat in 2018, during Trump’s first term, but lost reelection while on the ballot with Trump in 2024.

“So, what happens is every time I run, we do great,” Trump said, repeating his call for voters to “pretend” he’s on the ballot this year.

The first days of early voting in Ohio showed signs Democrats are more enthusiastic to vote , with affiliated Democrats making up larger shares of pre-election voters than they did two years ago, even in the most Republican parts of the state, according to data from the secretary of state’s office last week. (But Republicans in recent years have much been much more likely to vote early in person or on Election Day.)

Trump seemed to tacitly acknowledge Ohioans’ previous tendency to back Brown, arguing that a vote for the former senator could have much wider ramifications.

“It’s one vote, but that one vote can steer Congress into a direction that you’re not going to be happy with. And it’s not Ohio values.”

周一，唐纳德·特朗普总统在俄亥俄州举行了一场声势浩大的集会，拉开了为期一周的“红色州”竞选活动的序幕。共和党人正在俄亥俄州努力保住一个参议院席位，该席位对于获得多数席位至关重要。

在他近90分钟的讲话中，他花了不少时间抨击索马里和海地社区，发表煽动性的政治攻击，迎合他的支持者。他有时甚至把两位外州民主党人——明尼苏达州众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔和密歇根州参议员候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德——描绘成比前俄亥俄州参议员谢罗德·布朗更大的威胁。布朗在俄亥俄州——这个曾被特朗普打造成共和党铁票仓的州——正与共和党参议员乔恩·赫斯特展开激烈竞争。

在俄亥俄州之后，特朗普计划前往阿拉斯加州和蒙大拿州——他在2024年大选中分别以13个百分点和20个百分点的优势赢得了这两个州——他的团队寄希望于他能提振保守派地区的选民投票率。但周一晚上，当特朗普重返他2017年举行“答谢巡回演讲”的同一体育馆时，媒体席两侧的大片座位却空无一人，而这些座位原本是观看总统演讲的绝佳位置。

尽管如此，这场集会比最近的一些集会热闹得多，期间发生了两次重大中断。其中一次，一名身穿“公布爱泼斯坦档案”T恤的抗议者与一名看台上的集会参与者似乎发生了冲突。另一次中断则来自一名挥舞着墨西哥国旗的年轻女子。

特朗普竞选纲领的很大一部分内容是关于移民问题，这再次提及了他在 2024 年大力宣传的主题，当时他重申了自己关于俄亥俄州斯普林菲尔德的海地移民正在吃邻居宠物的虚假说法。

“看看曾经伟大的明尼苏达州现在发生了什么事，”他说，并开始攻击奥马尔——奥马尔一直是他的攻击目标。

据司法部发言人和一位知情人士透露，联邦官员周一清晨对这位女议员位于华盛顿特区附近的住所执行了搜查令。

尽管特朗普坚称他没有参与搜寻，但他还是称奥马尔（美国公民）是“灾难”，并攻击了她的出生国。

“（奥马尔议员）来自一个没有法律、没有警察、没有军队的国家，他们只会互相残杀——她来到我们国家，却说‘我有宪法权利’，”特朗普说。“她有宪法权利？她居然在跟我们谈论宪法，而她来自地球上最糟糕的国家之一。”

凯文·拉马克/路透社

当他开始对美国境内的索马里人进行猛烈抨击时，观众席上的支持者开始高喊“驱逐！”

“他们以为自己身处索马里，连裤子都没有，”特朗普一度说道，并再次重复了他对“低智商人群”的侮辱。

他把民主党占优势的明尼苏达州当作反面教材。“如果你们想阻止俄亥俄州像明尼苏达州那样被掠夺、洗劫和摧毁，我们就会阻止它。就像我们当年在斯普林菲尔德所做的那样，我们会阻止它，”特朗普说道。

当总统转向布朗（布朗在上周公布的 CNN 民调中领先赫斯特 6 个百分点）时，他试图以更笼统的方式将这位曾三度当选的现任议员与全国民主党人联系起来。

“谢罗德·布朗是马克思主义者、共产主义者、反美激进分子的候选人，他们想要摧毁美国的传统，”特朗普说，他还声称自己想把中西部“变成摩加迪沙”。

布朗是一位进步民粹主义者，于 2006 年首次当选参议员，在 2018 年特朗普的第一个任期内保住了他的席位，但在 2024 年与特朗普一起参加选举时落败。

“所以，每次我参选，我们都会取得好成绩，”特朗普说道，并再次呼吁选民“假装”他今年也在选票上。

俄亥俄州提前投票的最初几天就显示出民主党人的投票热情更高。根据州务卿办公室上周公布的数据，即使在该州共和党势力最强大的地区，民主党选民在提前投票者中所占的比例也高于两年前。（但近年来，共和党人更倾向于提前亲自投票或在选举日当天投票。）

特朗普似乎默认了俄亥俄州选民此前支持布朗的倾向，并辩称投票给这位前参议员可能会产生更广泛的影响。

“虽然只是一票，但这一票却能将国会引向一个你不会喜欢的方向。而且，这不符合俄亥俄州的价值观。”