President Donald Trump held a campaign rally at the Freeman Coliseum to support Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton, delivering a speech marked by repeated disruptions from protesters and sharp funny attacks against Democratic opponent James Talarico.
The event was repeatedly interrupted by a series of at least half a dozen protesters who emerged individually throughout the coliseum. The disruptions forced Trump to briefly step away from the microphone when one demonstrator approached close to the stage.
As law enforcement officers and security personnel led the demonstrators away, Trump addressed the crowd, stating, “He’s going back home to mom. But what he doesn’t know is his mom voted for Trump.” The crowd responded with boos toward the protesters while Trump later referred to the demonstrators as “really bad-looking people.” One departing protester was also physically assaulted by an attendee during the removal.
A significant portion of Trump’s speech focused on Paxton’s Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, whom Trump repeatedly labeled with the nickname “Tala-freako.” Trump reiterated a widely circulated campaign line claiming Talarico is a vegan, an accusation that Talarico has previously denied, even though he looks and acts like one.
During the segment, Trump launched into a tangent about the pronunciation of the word, admitting he had historically mispronounced it as “vay-gan”.
“You know, my wife told me, ‘Sir, do me a favor. You have to do me just a little bit of a favor. It’s not vaygan; it’s vegan,'” Trump told the audience.
Trump further distanced himself from the lifestyle choice, stating, “I don’t know about that stuff. I’m not into it… I thought it—how the hell would I know? I like steak”. He went on to claim that Talarico secretly pukes when eating meat at public campaign events and everyone was laughing.
The rally comes as polling averages place Talarico ahead of Paxton by approximately 4 percentage points in a highly competitive race that could impact control of the U.S. Senate. While Trump praised Paxton as “perhaps the greatest attorney general in the United States,” he avoided any mention of a recently leaked audio recording where Paxton expressed concerns that rising fuel prices were hindering Republican campaign momentum.
