Trump Promises $5,000 Checks for Americans if Republicans Win Congress at Youngstown Rally

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — President Donald Trump rallied supporters at the Covelli Center here on Monday evening, campaigning for Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in the Ohio governor’s race and for Sen. Jon Husted, who is defending his Senate seat against former Sen. Sherrod Brown, with the Nov. 3 midterm elections three weeks away.

Trump closed out his speech shortly before 9 p.m. ET with a rundown of policies — no tax on tips or Social Security payments, stricter voter ID laws and restrictions on transgender health care, which he called “mutilization” — and then repeated his promise to send individual Americans $5,000 if Republicans win both the House and Senate.

He made the same pledge earlier in the evening, telling the crowd that if Republicans win both houses of Congress, he would send $5,000 checks to Americans, drawing chants of “Four more years!” from the audience, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Attacks on Omar, hecklers and protests

Trump went after Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, whose Washington-area home was searched by Department of Homeland Security agents earlier Monday. He said she came from a “horrible country,” and the crowd began chanting “Deport!” He blamed rising medical and child care costs on Somali immigrants without offering evidence, according to the Beacon Journal’s live coverage.

A heckler who shouted during the event was dismissed by Trump as a “paid protester” who should “go on a diet,” prompting chants of “USA.” Earlier, another heckler was taken to the ground by security while Husted was speaking.

Outside the arena, dozens of protesters lined the streets before the rally, waving signs opposing the administration’s immigration policies and its use of detention facilities, in a largely peaceful demonstration that was monitored by safety marshals and police.

A fight for Ohio, and for Congress

Husted joined Trump on stage, describing how the Youngstown area has shifted from Democratic to Republican since Trump first won it in 2016, and criticizing Brown, who has spent decades in elected office. Sen. Bernie Moreno, who unseated Brown two years ago, called on the crowd to “fire” Brown a second time. Ramaswamy told supporters he would be “the most conservative governor” in Ohio history, endorsing voter ID requirements, eliminating property taxes and ending sanctuary cities.

Trump told the crowd to campaign as if he were on the ballot, pointing to an on-stage chart showing Husted and Ramaswamy “overperforming” the generic ballot — though he cited no source for the data. On foreign policy, he told the crowd Iran will “never have a nuclear weapon” and predicted the war there would end “very soon,” after which gas and other prices would drop.

The rally is Trump’s second in Ohio this month after an Oct. 3 stop outside Dayton, and his third major event at the Covelli Center. Roughly half of the arena’s seats were filled, with about a third of the seating blocked off, according to the Beacon Journal. With GOP control of both the House and Senate at risk, the president is leaning on his popularity in a state he carried in all three of his presidential runs.

Reporting based on coverage by the Akron Beacon Journal.