Trump Takes the Stage in Port Huron, Pressing the Michigan Senate Race in the Final Week
President Donald Trump took the stage at McMorran Place Arena in Port Huron on Sunday afternoon, the first visit by a sitting president to the border city, as he campaigned for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers nine days before the midterm elections.
PORT HURON, Mich. — President Donald Trump took the stage at McMorran Place Arena on Sunday afternoon to cheers, shortly before 3:30 p.m., for a midterm rally in a border city no sitting president had visited before. The stop put him in Michigan nine days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, in a state with one of the closest Senate races in the country.
The open-seat contest pits former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, against Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat, for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in both the Senate and the House to take control of Congress, against Republican majorities of 53-47 and 218-214, according to Reuters.
Tariffs and Iran in a pre-rally interview
Before taking the stage, Trump spoke with FOX 2 Detroit about the tariff fight with Canada and the war with Iran, two issues that bear on prices for Michigan families and businesses. He said a tariff deal with Canada was in the works and estimated it could take months, but added that it could also be resolved before the election.
He said the war with Iran would not be resolved until it was certain the country did not have nuclear capabilities. “I’m going to make a great deal. I’m a longterm person; I’m not a short term person,” he said.
Trump also used a Truth Social post about 1:30 p.m. to attack El-Sayed, writing that he was heading to Michigan to fight “a Jihadist Member of the Muslim Brotherhood.” El-Sayed has said he “absolutely” disavows the Muslim Brotherhood, the Port Huron Times Herald reported. Rogers, who also took the stage during the rally, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Trump’s tariffs had secured manufacturing investments for Michigan by Chevrolet and Detroit Diesel, but said “the automobile portion of these Canadian tariffs worries me a little bit.” He added: “There’s some good and there’s some things we have to work on.”
A border city at the center of the tariff fight
Port Huron sits on the Canadian border, linked to Sarnia, Ontario, by the Blue Water Bridge. Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said passenger car crossings on the bridge dropped 21% in 2025 from a year earlier, according to data from the Bridge and Tunnel Operators Association, and said residents felt disrespected by the tariff fight. St. Clair County Commissioner Kerry Ange, by contrast, said she thought talk of conflict with Canada was overblown at a personal level and that she had seen no drop in Canadian foot traffic.
About 30 to 40 people gathered to protest downtown before the rally, and police broke up a brief physical altercation between groups, the Times Herald reported. Lines to enter the arena had stretched more than a block by early morning, with doors opening at 11:30 a.m.
The visit came a day after former President Barack Obama campaigned in Detroit on Saturday alongside El-Sayed and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson. Early in-person voting in Michigan began on Saturday, Oct. 24, and runs through Sunday, Nov. 1.
Reporting based on coverage by the Port Huron Times Herald, FOX 2 Detroit and Reuters.
