Trump attacks immigrants from Somalia and Haiti while rallying in Ohio
for Republican candidates
[October 13, 2026]
By JULIE CARR SMYTH and NICHOLAS RICCARDI
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday tried to boost
Sen. Jon Husted’s reelection campaign by attacking two groups of Black
immigrants during a rally in Ohio, where an organization with Republican
ties began promoting a socialist candidate over Democratic nominee
Sherrod Brown.
Trump also gave a shoutout to Rep. Max Miller, the Republican
congressman who refused to stop running for reelection after facing
accusations of domestic abuse, pointing him out in the audience.
“Thank you, Max, for coming,” Trump said. “Thank you. Very good.”
Trump focused, however, on a favorite issue — immigration. Trump has
long targeted Minnesota's large population of Somali immigrants and on
Monday he linked that group to Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. During a
presidential debate two years ago, Trump falsely accused the latter
group of eating pets. Referencing those allegations Monday, Trump said
“I was right” and boasted that Haitians were being driven out of the
country by his administration's policies.
“If you want to stop Ohio from being plundered, 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 it, we’re not
going to let it happen.”
Trump's remarks came on the same day Homeland Security agents searched
the Washington home of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali immigrant
who represents a Minnesota district.
The president visited Youngstown less than a week after rallying in
Dayton. The intense focus on Ohio, a state Trump won by 11 percentage
points, shows the challenging environment Republicans are navigating in
the midterms amid the Iran war and lingering inflation. In addition to
the Senate contest, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy is locked in a close
governor's race with Democrat Amy Acton.
The rally was also a reminder of the extent Trump is willing to go to
boost his allies — he announced a new submarine component manufacturing
center will be located in nearby Cleveland during the rally — and his
persistent focus on Black immigrants.
Back in 2018, Trump privately complained about immigrants from countries
like Haiti — using an expletive to describe them — and wondering why the
United States couldn't get more migrants from places like Norway. The
statement was condemned as racist and Trump denied making it at the
time.
But Trump admitted using the phrase last year, and his second
administration has focused on restricting immigration and barring any
refugees except white South Africans.
During the rally, he celebrated what he contended was an exodus of
Haitians out of Springfield. The Trump administration ended a program
that allowed more than 350,000 Haitians to stay in the country legally,
which some of the roughly 15,000 Haitians who arrived in Springfield,
population 60,000, in recent years.
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President Donald Trump gestures at a campaign rally at the Covelli
Centre, in Youngstown, Ohio, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP
Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“They're getting their town back,” Trump said about the original
residents of Springfield, as he also stood by his debunked statement
at the 2024 presidential debate that the Haitians were eating local
pets. That claim was based on a secondhand Facebook post whose
author deleted it and apologized, saying she had no evidence it was
true.
Trump devoted even more time to insulting immigrants from Somalia,
where he claimed that people were “low IQ” and “don't have pants to
wear.”
Trump's main goal was to boost Husted, who was appointed to replace
Vice President JD Vance in the Senate in 2024 and faces a tough
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 promote independent candidate Greg Levy over Brown with
messages such as “Join the Revolution” and “Send a Worker to the
Senate.” Levy describes himself as “Socialist running for the 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” designed to mislead voters. He said he is
considering legal action.
“This is a highly undemocratic practice and does a disservice to
voters in Ohio and throughout the country,” he wrote on X.
According to Federal Election Commission filings, Enough Promises
Ohio was founded Sept. 29. It has not yet had to disclose its
contributors, but additional federal filings lay out a trail of
associations linked to Republicans.
Enough Promises paid the firm Seven Farms more than $397,000 on two
dates last week for printing, postage and mail services either
supporting Levy or opposing Brown. Seven Farms, also a new entity,
lists as its address the same South Carolina business suite as the
one used by Whistlestop Strategies LLC.
Whistlestop is a direct mail outfit operated by Big Dog Strategies
LLC, the strategy firm that advises Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC and
that managed Moreno's successful campaign against Brown in 2024.
Enough Promises Ohio and Big Dog did not respond to requests for
comment.
___
Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this
report.
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