COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — President Donald Trump tried Monday to boost Sen. Jon Husted’s re-election campaign by attacking two black immigrant groups at a rally in Ohio, where an organization with Republican ties began promoting a socialist candidate over Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown.
Trump also paid tribute to Rep. Max Miller, the Republican congressman who refused to stop running for re-election after being accused of domestic violence, by singling him out in the audience.
“Thank you, Max, for coming,” Trump said. “Thank you. Very good.”
Trump, however, focused on a favorite topic: immigration. Trump has has long targeted Minnesota’s large Somali immigrant population and on Monday he linked this group to Haitians in SpringfieldOhio. During a presidential debate two years ago, Trump falsely accused the latter group of eating pets. Referring to the allegations Monday, Trump said, “I was right” and boasted that Haitians were being driven out of the country. by the policies of his administration.
“If you want to stop Ohio from being looted and 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 this, we’re not going to let this happen.”
Trump’s remarks came on the same day that Homeland Security agents searched the Democratic president’s home in Washington. Representative Ilhan Omar, a Somali immigrant who represents a district in Minnesota.
The president visited Youngstown less than a week later rally in Dayton. The intense focus on Ohio, a state Trump won by 11 percentage points, shows the difficult environment Republicans find themselves in in the midterms, amid the war in Iran and persistent inflation. In addition to the Senate race, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy is engaged in a tight race for governor with Democrat Amy Acton.
The rally also served as a reminder of how far Trump is willing to go to strengthen his allies — he announced that a new submarine component manufacturing center would be located in nearby Cleveland during the rally — and his enduring focus on black immigrants.
In 2018, Trump privately complained about immigrants from countries like Haiti — using an expletive to describe them — and questioning why the United States couldn’t attract more migrants from countries like Norway. The statement was condemned as racist and Trump denied making it at the time.
But Trump admitted to using this expression last year, and his second administration focused on restricting immigration and banning all refugees except White South Africans.
During the rally, he celebrated what he called the exodus of Haitians from Springfield. The Trump administration completed a program which has allowed more than 350,000 Haitians to legally remain in the country, including some among the approximately 15,000 Haitians who have arrived in Springfield, population 60,000, in recent years.
“They’re getting their town back,” Trump said of Springfield’s early residents, while confirming his debunked statement during the 2024 presidential debate that Haitians ate local pets. This claim was based on a secondary Facebook post whose author deleted it and apologized, saying she had no proof of its veracity.
Trump spent even more time insulting immigrants from Somalia, where he claimed people had “low IQs” and “don’t have pants to wear.”
Trump’s main goal was to strengthen Husted, who was nominated to replace Vice President JD Vance in the Senate in 2024 and faces a strong challenge from Brown, a longtime senator who lost his seat to Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024.
The presidential visit came after mailers, sponsored by Enough Promises Ohio PAC, began arriving in voters’ mailboxes in recent days. They favor independent candidate Greg Levy over Brown with messages such as “Join the revolution” and “Send a worker to the Senate.” Levy describes himself as “a socialist running for U.S. Senate to represent Ohio in 2026” on his X account.
Levy condemned the fliers for falsely impersonating his campaign and engaging in “dirty tricks” intended to mislead voters. He said he was considering legal action.
“This is a highly undemocratic practice that does a disservice to voters in Ohio and across the country,” he wrote on X.
According to Federal Election Commission filings, Enough Promises Ohio was founded on September 29. It has not yet had to disclose its contributors, but other federal documents present a trail of Republican-linked associations.
Enough Promises paid the Seven Farms company more than $397,000 on two dates last week for printing, postage and mailing services supporting Levy or opposing Brown. Seven Farms, also a new entity, lists its address as the same South Carolina business suite used by Whistlestop Strategies LLC.
Whistlestop is a direct mail company operated by Big Dog Strategies LLC, the strategy firm that advises Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC and managed Moreno’s successful campaign against Brown in 2024.
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.
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