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Donald Trump curiously gushed about Sen. Jon Husted’s attractiveness and athleticism at a rally in Ohio — all to boost Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections.
The president said Ohioans must vote for Husted to keep his seat despite a challenge from Sherrod Brown, a former Democratic senator from Ohio. Jon Gruden, a former Super Bowl-winning coach, introduced the president at Monday’s rally and mentioned to Trump that he and the senator played ball together in college.
“I’m here and I don’t do this with men very often. I started looking at (Husted’s) body because I didn’t know he was a great athlete, and I looked, and I looked up and down,” Trump told supporters Monday night in Youngstown with Husted in the crowd. “I looked at his ass, and I looked at the whole thing, and then I looked at his hands. Look at his hands. He has like claws.”
Husted was an All-American defensive back at the University of Dayton, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Trump said Gruden told him about Husted’s athletic prowess. Gruden was on the Dayton Flyers with Husted in 1985.
“I said, ‘John, what are you doing here?’ I thought he was going to say, “I’m here for you, sir. I have so much respect for you. But he didn’t say that. He said, “I’m here for my teammate.” I said, “Who’s your teammate?” “He said, ‘It’s John Husted,'” Trump told the crowd.
The president remembers asking Gruden if Husted was “good,” to which Gruden responded, “He was the best player on the team.”
Later in his speech, Trump baselessly claimed that Brown “wanted men to play women’s sports” and then launched into a rant about female kickers in football.
“John Gruden is a great coach on many championship teams. John, have you ever had a wife that you desperately wanted to have on one of your championship teams?” » Trump said. “What if every once in a while I see a kicker – they have a kicker who’s a woman because they put them on.”
Trump then suggested that Indiana Fever goalkeeper Sophie Cunningham be placed on a men’s team.
“Let’s put her on. I like Sophie. Yes, there would be a lot of men who would want to go look at her. She is beautiful. You are not allowed to say that anymore. However, as a politician, please let me take it back,” the president said.
Trump’s speech was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, whom the president insulted with “your mother” and crude jokes, as he did at a recent rally in Texas.
During the initial disturbances, Trump said there were paid protesters in the crowd.
“They’re being paid by the leftists to destroy our country. They’re scum, but he’s going home to his mother…He has to go on a diet. He’s a big guy,” Trump said. “What he doesn’t know is that his mother and father voted for me.”
Later, another protester waving a Palestinian flag interrupted Trump’s speech, recalling a protester waving a Mexican flag and a Palestinian flag during Vice President JD Vance’s speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas last month.
In a recent CNN poll conducted by the research firm SSRS, Brown — who served in the Senate from 2007 to 2025 — led Husted — a former lieutenant governor appointed to fill Vance’s vacant Senate seat — by six points among likely Ohio voters, 49 to 43 percent.
Trump, who has enjoyed record approval ratings, campaigned in red states as if he were on the ballot; in fact, he told his supporters to vote for the Republicans he supports as if he were on the ballot. Meanwhile, Democrats in Texas, Alaska, Iowa and Kansas are gaining ground in states where Republicans typically win easily, according to a recent study. New York Times/Polls from the University of Siena.
Husted then joined Trump on stage Monday night, telling the crowd: “Mr. President, you helped bring this region and this state back to prominence. And I tell you, we’re going to do everything we can to win on November 3, and you’re going to bring it home with us, right?”
“Wow, he’s really changed since you all learned what a great athlete he was,” Trump said after Husted’s remarks. “I just hit him in the back and hurt my hand a little. He’s like a piece of steel.”
Later, influencer and boxer Jake Paul took the stage and spoke out against the protesters.
“I’m confused by the left, the protesters. Don’t they have jobs? That’s all they do: They just carry signs while we do the work,” the Ohio native said. “We must protect this state because Washington does not belong to celebrities like me. It does not belong to politicians. It belongs to you and to us, the American people.”
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