Protesters disrupted Donald Trump’s Texas rally at least six times on Wednesday, forcing the president to pause mid-speech and step away from the microphone as police removed demonstrators from the San Antonio arena. Additionally, a Trump supporter physically assaulted another protester as he tried to leave.
Donald Trump faced repeated interruptions while campaigning for Ken Paxton in San Antonio
One man approached the stage before officers escorted him out. “He’s going back home to mom,” Trump said. “But what he doesn’t know is his mom voted for Trump.” Supporters in cowboy hats chanted “USA” to drown out the interruptions, while the president told demonstrators to “get the hell out of here” and claimed without evidence they were “paid by enemies of our nation.”
Donald Trump visited Texas for the third time in under a month to boost Ken Paxton, the Republican Senate candidate he endorsed over incumbent John Cornyn. Paxton thanked him from the stage: “Mr President, I want to thank you for coming for me, for coming for us, and for coming for Texas. We are going to win this race.” Trump called Paxton “perhaps the greatest attorney general in the United States of America” and “a fantastic man.”
Moreover, Democrats have seized on the race. A New York Times/Siena College poll last weekend showed Democrat James Talarico leading Paxton 51% to 45% among likely voters. Texas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988. Trump attacked Talarico throughout the rally, repeatedly calling him “Tala-freako” and claiming without evidence that he is vegan and recently disappeared. He also insisted Texas voters would reject “weak, gutless, self-hating, transgender-promoting freak shows.”
However, his approval rating sits at 32%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday, with registered voters preferring Democrats 44% to 37%. The president’s political difficulties in Texas were underscored by the absence of Republican governor Greg Abbott, who attended a hospital dedication about 330 miles away instead.