President Donald Trump used a rally in Ohio on Monday to rally support for Sen. Jon Husted’s reelection bid, targeting two groups of Black immigrants as a Republican-linked organization promoted a socialist candidate over Democratic nominee Sherrod Brown.
Trump also singled out Rep. Max Miller, the Republican congressman who continued his reelection campaign after facing accusations of domestic abuse, despite calls for him to step aside.
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“Thank you, Max, for coming,” Trump said. “Thank you. Very good.”
Immigration remained the central theme of Trump’s remarks. He has repeatedly attacked Minnesota’s sizable Somali immigrant population, and on Monday he connected Somalis with Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. Trump falsely claimed during a presidential debate two years ago that Haitians in Springfield were eating pets. Referring to those accusations, he said Monday, “I was right,” while claiming his administration’s policies were forcing Haitians to leave the country.
“If you want to stop Ohio from being plundered, ransacked and destroyed like Minnesota is being destroyed, we’re going to stop it,” Trump said. “Just like we did with Springfield, we’re going to stop it, we’re not going to let it happen.”
Trump spoke as Homeland Security agents searched the Washington home of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali immigrant who represents a Minnesota district.
The president’s appearance in Youngstown came less than a week after a rally in Dayton. His repeated trips to Ohio, which he carried by 11 percentage points, underscore the difficult political landscape Republicans face in the midterm elections as the Iran war and persistent inflation weigh on voters. Republicans are also defending the governor’s seat, where Vivek Ramaswamy is in a close race against Democrat Amy Acton.
The event highlighted the lengths Trump is prepared to go to support allies. During the rally, he announced that a new submarine component manufacturing center would be built in nearby Cleveland. It also underscored his continued focus on Black immigrants.
In 2018, Trump privately complained about immigrants from countries including Haiti, using an expletive to describe them and asking why the United States could not attract more migrants from countries such as Norway. The comment drew condemnation as racist, and Trump initially denied making it.
Trump acknowledged using the phrase last year. Since returning to office, his administration has emphasized immigration restrictions and barred refugees from entering the country except for white South Africans.
At Monday’s rally, Trump celebrated what he described as Haitians’ exodus from Springfield. His administration ended a program that allowed more than 350,000 Haitians to remain in the United States legally, including some of the roughly 15,000 Haitians who moved to Springfield, a city with a population of 60,000, in recent years.
“They’re getting their town back,” Trump said of Springfield’s longtime residents. He also repeated his debunked claim from the 2024 presidential debate that Haitians had been eating local pets. The allegation originated in a secondhand Facebook post that was later deleted; its author apologized and said she had no evidence to support it.
Trump spent even more time disparaging immigrants from Somalia, asserting that they were “low IQ” and “don’t have pants to wear.”
Trump’s immediate political objective was to help Husted, who was appointed in 2024 to fill the Senate seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance. Husted is facing a difficult challenge from Brown, a longtime senator who lost his seat to Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024.
The presidential visit followed the arrival of mailers sponsored by Enough Promises Ohio PAC. The mailers urge voters to support independent candidate Greg Levy rather than Brown, using slogans including “Join the Revolution” and “Send a Worker to the Senate.” Levy identifies himself on X as a “Socialist running for the U.S. Senate to represent Ohio in 2026.”
Levy denounced the mailers, saying they falsely presented themselves as materials from his campaign and amounted to “dirty tricks” intended to mislead voters. He said he was considering legal action.
“This is a highly undemocratic practice and does a disservice to voters in Ohio and throughout the country,” he wrote on X.
Federal Election Commission filings show that Enough Promises Ohio was established Sept. 29. The group has not yet been required to identify its donors, but other federal filings show a network of connections to Republican organizations.
Enough Promises paid Seven Farms more than $397,000 on two dates last week for printing, postage and mail services that either supported Levy or opposed Brown. Seven Farms, which was also recently created, lists the same South Carolina business suite as Whistlestop Strategies LLC.
Whistlestop is a direct-mail operation run by Big Dog Strategies LLC, the consulting firm that advises Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC and managed Moreno’s successful 2024 campaign against Brown.
Enough Promises Ohio and Big Dog did not respond to requests for comment.
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
