Trending
When you attend a Donald Trump rally, there are certain things to expect.
You're going to wait around before anyone speaks, you're going to wait even longer for the president to deliver his speech, his is not going to be a short speech, it's going to go off on tangents that have nothing to do with the matter at hand, the crowd is going to eat it up and there's going to be incidents between Trump's supporters and those who feel the need to protest inside the building.
While there were many people protesting near Youngstown's Covelli Centre, there were at least four people protesting inside during Monday's rally that was designed to drum up support for U.S. Sen. Jon Husted and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, both Republicans who are endorsed by Trump.
Both races are very competitive and Trump wouldn't have come twice to Ohio - he was in Vandalia, near Dayton, nine days before Youngstown - if Republicans were confident Husted and Ramaswamy were going to easily win in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to any statewide executive branch seat since 2008 and last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 2018.
Two protesters yelled during Husted's speech and were quickly escorted out of the arena with the senator saying, "We won't be intimidated or bullied."
There were two incidents during Trump's speech. One was a woman with a flag who left peacefully with an escort by law enforcement.
This came about eight minutes after an ugly incident involving a different woman wearing a shirt reading: "Release the Epstein files." The person was shouting and then a few Trump supporters - one in particular - going after the protester. One person is seen on video taken of the incident punching the protester in the face, only stopping when law enforcement arrived. Officers removed the protester while the person who did the punching was permitted to remain there.
No charges were filed.
When this occurred, Trump stopped speaking rather than trying to deescalate it.
As the protester was removed, and put up two middle fingers while being escorted out, Trump said: "He's a paid protester. They're all paid. They get paid by the lefties in order to destroy our country. They're scum. But he's going back home to mom."
In addition to misidentifying her as a woman, Trump also made fun of her weight.
This is not an uncommon occurrence at a Trump rally.
Trump spoke for less than 80 minutes - which is long but relatively short for him - with part of that time given to Husted and Ramaswamy as well as Jake Paul.
When Trump found out Husted was an All-American defensive back when he played football at the University of Dayton, it became an ongoing fascination for the president during the speech.
Trump said: "I don't do this with men very often. I started examining his body because I didn't know he was a great athlete. And I looked and watched up and down. I looked at his ass and I looked at the whole (laughter) - and I then looked at his hands. Look at his hands. He's got these, like, claws. And I got it. You are a great athlete. I didn't know that because he doesn't talk about that. Congratulations. Now they finally know."
While Trump touted Husted and Ramaswamy while badmouthing their Democratic opponents, Sherrod Brown and Amy Acton, respectively, he also touted his presidency as well as again saying gas prices are going to drop and he'd end wars in Iran and between Ukraine and Russia.
Trump contended that with Republicans in charge, the country is taking in "massive amounts of money through tariffs and (experiencing) record-setting economic success."
Trump said: "If the Republicans win, you will each have $5,000 in your pocket and economic success for our country the likes of which we have never seen before."
That led to the audience chanting: "Four more years."
Trump also spent time talking about how terrible Minnesota has become under Democratic control and that "members of the Somalian community have looted tens of billions of dollars from (the) Minnesota welfare program."
Trump called Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat running for senator in Michigan, a "jihadist."
There is still the question about whether Trump's rallies will help Husted and Ramaswamy.
The rallies are designed to support the two, and other Republicans on the ballot to lesser extents. But Trump spends a lot of time talking about himself.
Do the rallies help Republicans?
If you're going to an event to listen to Trump, you're likely already going to vote for the Republican ticket - or at least for governor and senator.
But every little reassurance helps, particularly coming from Trump.
That's why former President Barack Obama is campaigning Oct. 24 in Cleveland for Acton and Brown.
David Skolnick covers politics for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.