Trump Rallies in Deep-Red Mississippi as GOP Plays Defense

Trump Rallies in Deep-Red Mississippi as GOP Plays Defense

A Hoarse Trump Takes the Stage in Corinth

President Donald Trump campaigned Monday night in Corinth, Mississippi, headlining a rally at the Crossroads Arena for Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith with just a week to go before the Nov. 3 midterms. His voice audibly hoarse, Trump told the crowd: "I'm here because Cindy's doing great, but I just got to make sure. I can't take a chance." It was his first rally in the state since 2019, and he joked that he could not even remember where that one was held: "We did a rally in the north or the south, I don't know where the hell it was." That 2019 rally was in Tupelo, just over 50 miles away.

A Surprisingly Stiff Challenge in a Safe Seat

Hyde-Smith, seeking her second full term, faces Democrat Scott Colom, a district attorney for four counties along the Mississippi-Alabama border. Colom would make history as Mississippi's first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction. Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982, and the Cook Political Report has moved the race from "solid Republican" to "likely Republican." The Senate Majority PAC, aligned with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, announced $1.2 million in TV and digital ads for Colom, prompting Hyde-Smith's campaign to dismiss it as a "last ditch effort to give life to Scott Colom's failing campaign."

Defending Ground He Once Won by 20 Points

The visit underlines Republican anxiety: Trump carried Mississippi with 57.9 percent in 2016, 57.6 percent in 2020 and 60.9 percent in 2024. He twice stumped for Hyde-Smith in the 2018 special election, which she won by 7 points, and backed her again in 2020, when she won by 10 points over Mike Espy. Monday's rally took place in the 1st Congressional District, which backed Trump by 37 points. Yet here was the president, spending a precious closing week in a state he won by about 23 points.

Five-Thousand-Dollar Checks and a 1929 Warning

Trump closed his speech with a sweeping promise: $5,000 checks for every adult citizen if Republicans win majorities in both chambers, a plan he said would cost $1 trillion. He credited tariffs with luring foreign manufacturers to the United States, citing $22.2 trillion in investment commitments, and warned that a Democratic Congress would bring a "1929 style economic depression." Experts have questioned the legality of such payments, and no similar checks floated earlier in the term ever materialized.

A Closing Blitz Through Trump Country

Corinth kicks off a week of campaigning concentrated in states Trump won comfortably in 2024, with stops planned in Texas, South Carolina and Iowa, plus a Saturday rally in Salina, Kansas, his second visit to the state in under two weeks. Vice President JD Vance stumped in Topeka for Sen. Roger Marshall, locked in a tight contest with Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton in a state that has not elected a Democratic senator since 1932. Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority, so Democrats must flip at least four seats to take control.

The Cheesecake Factory Fight

Trump devoted several minutes to rebutting former President Barack Obama, who jabbed at a Saturday rally in Cleveland for Senate nominee Sherrod Brown that gold appliques in the Oval Office made it look "like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory." Obama had mocked the ballroom project as "bigger than the White House," accused Trump of paving over the Rose Garden and building a helicopter pad on the South Lawn, and suggested he "should be on HGTV." Trump shot back that the chain is "a very successful company," that Obama "doesn't like successful companies," and that the White House is "in the best shape it's been since 1792." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent piled on Monday by dining at a Cheesecake Factory and accusing Obama of elitism.

Hecklers Test a Tired Voice

The night was rowdy: at least three hecklers interrupted the speech, one shouting at Trump to "shove that ballroom up your fat ass." Trump shouted back "go home" and claimed, without evidence, that the protesters were paid, at one point invoking George Soros and a $250 check. Trump briefly welcomed Hyde-Smith to the stage but spent most of his remarks on his own record — less a celebration of a safe seat than a stress test for a party on defense in its own heartland.