President Donald J. Trump addresses his remarks to the Economic Club of New York Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019, at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York.
President Donald Trump, who has openly called for violence against protesters who oppose him, gloated at the idea of anti-Trump protesters being abused by their parents during a political rally in Kansas on Monday.
"You know what he is?" Trump said about the protesters, making an accusation that he supplied without evidence. "They’re paid protestors. They’re paid protestors. Paid protestors."
He then joked, "And I always say, now he goes home to mom and dad. They slap him around. They say, 'I voted for that man. They voted for me.'"
Trump continued, "No, you know, they’re paid. They’re paid protestors. Every once in a while, you know, you see some... And it’s actually very dangerous to be at a..."
At that point, other protesters began to speak out in opposition to Trump. Like the previous protesters, who were forcibly removed from the rally, the new ones were also expelled.
"Oh, here’s another one," Trump said. "Listen to that one. I can tell by the voice they get paid. They get paid. How great is it to be at a Trump rally? Thank you. Thank you, fellas."
After a brief digression about the ongoing protests in France, which he blamed on immigration, Trump returned to the subject of the exiled protesters.
"So we have two and a half people did that, and tomorrow the headlines are gonna be, 'Trump has to go through massive protests,'" Trump said. "No, we have... You know, they have 5,000 people standing outside watching a jumbotron right now. And we love you out there too. We love you out there."
Trump has had a number of awkward encounters with protesters as he stumps for Republicans during the 2026 midterm elections. Earlier in October, Trump experienced surprising pushback when he delivered a speech at the University of Alabama. Alabama has voted overwhelmingly for Trump all three times he ran for president.
“Those who will gather in the Mitchell Center tonight, the con men, the crooks, the enablers, and the blind followers, they know in their racist old bones that their time is coming to an end,” Maura Mandyck, an organizer with Indivisible Mobile, said at the time. “It is our time now. Even more so, it is your time now.”
Also in October, a black MAGA influencer was asked to leave a Ken Paxton rally, seemingly because she was inaccurately profiled as a protester or disruptor.
“Wow. Oh my gosh. I cannot believe this... Someone just came up to me and said that Ken Paxton’s campaign manager wanted me to leave," TikToker Thelma Louise said. "I am just — my mouth is wide open right now. I really can’t believe this.”
She continued, “I was just asked to leave this event, and I did nothing wrong. I was told that Paxton’s campaign manager didn’t want me here. I’m not making any of this up... I have done nothing but support everyone on the Republican side, and this is how I get treated? I cannot believe the disrespect that I was just given. I left the Democratic Party two years ago, I have volunteered for President Trump’s campaign, and I have worked very hard promoting members of the Republican Party. I’m not quite sure what’s going on, but to be walked out of a room full of people and isolated as if I’d done something wrong — I cannot believe it.”