Digging in to defend both his pride and his political fortunes, President Donald Trump on Wednesday returned to deep-red Texas to rally for Ken Paxton’s Senate bid, while revealing at times his own trepidation that one of the Republican Party’s longest winning streaks may be about to end on his watch.
As multiple polls show state Rep. James Talarico with a shot at becoming the first Democrat to win statewide in Texas in more than three decades, Trump warned the crowd in San Antonio, “We’ll never forgive you for what you have done if you let that happen."
“The people of Texas are not going to let a weak, gutless, self-hating, transgender-promoting freak show destroy everything that we built," Trump said at another point during his third trip to Texas in less than a month. "So you need to go and vote for Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate.”
Trump centered much of his remarks on Talarico, deploying nicknames and repeating incorrect claims that he is vegan. “Now he says he loves meat. But he’s a vegan. … He wants to eat a little piece of lettuce,” Trump said. “He’s sick because he’s been forced to eat meat for political reasons. And he’s throwing up all over the place. He’s sick.”
During a rally that was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, Trump largely made his remarks an emotional appeal to Texas machismo, reminding voters that he plans a firing-squad execution—the first since World War II—of a man convicted of attacking troops in Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. He also mocked climate change and falsely claimed Democrats want to kill thousands of oil and gas jobs in Texas. He said gun rights and his own legacy are on the ballot this fall.
“I’ve basically been off-script for the entire night,” Trump said, stating the obvious.
The sprawling speech of discursives and legacy polishing came as Republicans try to weather the drag Trump has become for their candidates up and down the ballot. A Reuters-Ipsos poll of U.S. voters released Monday shows Democrats with a seven-point lead when it comes to which party should control Congress after this election. Others, such as The Economist-YouGov and Quinnipiac polls, have that figure in the double digits.
In the state with the longest border with Mexico, Trump repeatedly turned to amping up fears over an increase in illegal immigration, connecting it to the prospects of Democrats gaining power in Washington.
“If they get in, they will open your borders and let the entire world pour in like they did before. We can’t let that happen,” Trump said. “A vote for Talafreako is a vote to turn Texas into a dirty, failing, crime-ridden third-world dumping ground.”
The San Antonio rally was the latest sign of Trump’s effort to maximize his base’s turnout amid his slumping poll numbers. Multiple surveys now show almost two-thirds of Americans disapprove of how Trump is doing his job.
To counter that, Trump repeated his promise of $5,000 to every American if Republicans hold the majorities in the House and Senate. And in a more recent play, he promised new money for seniors. “Starting tomorrow, over 20 million seniors on Medicare will receive checks or deposits for over $100 each,” Trump said from the stage. He left out the part that less than a third of Medicare participants will get the one-time payments, checks, which will actually be $90.
Notably absent from Wednesday’s rally: GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, who is in an expectedly tight re-election bid on the same ballot as Paxton. But Trump appeared far more concerned about helping Republicans keep their narrow majorities in the House and the Senate. And central to the GOP holding on to the Senate is holding on to Texas.
“For decades, Texas has been the state where people flee to escape the economic oppression and social collapse of Democrat-run California, New York, Illinois, and other failing blue states. But if Talafreako and the Democrats get their way, all of that squalor, misery, poverty, homelessness,” Trump said, adding that he doesn’t even know Talarico’s real name. “I have no idea what the hell his name is,” the President said. “I just know him as Talafreako.”
