CORINTH, Miss.—President Donald Trump kissed U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith on the side of her forehead as he warmly welcomed her to the stage set up on the floor of Crossroads Arena in Corinth, Mississippi.
“I’m here because Cindy’s doing great, but I just got to make sure,” Trump had said earlier to the crowd. “I can’t take a chance. I can’t take a chance. She’s got no problem. The only problem is sometimes, and this happens in—sometimes when you think somebody is doing so well, nobody votes. They all stay home. ‘Oh, she’s Cindy’s great, she’s going to do—no problem, let’s stay home.’ And then bad things happen, Cindy, right? So that’s why I’m here. Just get out and vote because she’s going to win big.”
Trump previously campaigned with Hyde-Smith eight years ago in 2018 when he came to Tupelo and Biloxi, Mississippi. Then-Gov. Phil Bryant had appointed her to the position following U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran’s death in 2018, and she ran in a special election against former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy for her first full term that year.
“You know, when Cindy first ran, she ran against a guy who was terrible, actually. And she called, ‘Could you help me with a little rally?’ I said, ‘Oh, Cindy, I’m sorry. I’m trying to get myself elected, too, you know?’ I’d say that, ‘I’m so busy.’ So, we did a rally in north or south, I don’t know where the hell it was. She said, ‘Sir, could you do another one today?’ I said, “You got to be kidding.’ And we did and you wanted to know that side, right?”
Trump’s visit comes as Democrats have gotten far more aggressive in supporting Hyde-Smith’s challenger, Scott Colom, amidst an electoral environment that is growing increasingly sour for Republicans due to high gas prices and concerns about the economy. Mississippi has long been considered a safe Republican foothold, but the attention given to it by both national Republicans and Democrats indicates the 2026 election cycle may be different.
The campaign between Hyde-Smith and Colom has become contentious, with each candidate maintaining critical dispositions toward their main opponent. Both candidates have received national support when campaigning in this election cycle, with Trump having long supported Hyde-Smith’s efforts. Many prominent Democrats have spoken at rallies in support of Colom, including former Vice President Kamala Harris. Former President Bill Clinton will campaign with Colom in Tupelo on Oct. 30.
“Well, everything here is on the line: Everything we have accomplished, the good things we’ve done with President Donald Trump,” Hyde-Smith said at the rally. “It’s all at stake on Nov. 3. The control of the Senate is in its fate, and President Trump needs a Republican Congress to fight alongside him.”
Trump went on the attack on Hyde-Smith’s opponent, claiming that Colom as Mississippi’s 16th circuit district attorney has released one out of every three criminals arrested in his district without charges and that he slashed charges for “serial sex offenders and savage murderers.”
Colom has touted his record as a prosecutor and said he has won 94% of his trials as district attorney, landed convictions in 15 high-profile murder cases and closed several cold cases. No proof exists to confirm Trump’s allegations.
Trump called Colom a “fake, shameless phony who pretends to be a moderate” who “sits on the board of an organization that wants to defund the police and abolish all prisons. Something is wrong with these people.”
“But I’m here in Mississippi for a very special reason—to stop a Marxist, radical left, Soros district attorney from being elected in the United States Senate. We don’t want that person. Cindy’s opponent, Scott Colom, became the district attorney with nearly $1 million directly from George Soros. Without Soros, he couldn’t have done it. (He) funded Colom to set loose thousands and thousands of dangerous criminals to prey on the people of Mississippi.”
Hyde-Smith called Colom “the most radical Senate candidate to run from Mississippi, literally in our lifetime.” Colom is challenging her to be Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction.
Mississippi has the highest number of Black residents in the U.S. at 38%, and most Black voters choose Democratic candidates. Yet Mississippi hasn’t had a Black statewide official since Reconstruction. Mississippi’s last Democratic U.S. senator was John C. Stennis, who served from 1947 to 1989. White voters in Mississippi have long elected Republicans, with few crossing the political aisle to elect Black candidates.
However, Democrats have seen glimmers of hope in recent years. Hyde-Smith defeated Espy by only seven points in the 2018 runoff election. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves defeated former Attorney General Jim Hood by only five points to win office in 2018 and defeated former Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley by only three points in Reeves’ 2023 reelection bid.
“I’ve got something to tell them,” she said as someone in the crowd yelled, “You’re fired” in reference to Colom. “Mississippi is not for sale. It’s a critical, political thing, and I want you all to hear me tonight, is we’ve all got to all get out and vote. I cannot stress that enough. Endorsements don’t win elections; votes wins elections. … I said from the get-go, he will never out-work me. I will get out there. I will do whatever it takes.”
A Popular Event
Several green and yellow John Deere tractors blocked off part of the area outside of the arena. Food trucks and merchandise booths with “Make America Again” and Trump merch of all kinds, including hats, sparkly jackets and T-shirts, squatted between the thousands of attendees who waited for hours in a long line outside of the arena.
Many of the people were sporting red, white and pink “Make America Great Again” and “Trump 47” hats and most were wearing patriotic red, white and blue clothing. Some attendees wore shirts depicting Trump in various settings, including his mugshot, his assassination attempt and caricatures of him as Uncle Sam; a couple people had the president and the White House printed on shirts that had inscribed text saying “Daddy’s Home.” Many people donned button-ups, baseball jerseys and T-shirts and sweaters with the American flag print or the word “freedom.”
Each seat in the arena came with at least one political sign, some with Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s name, other with Trump’s name, the American flag or the Mississippi flag. Before the rally began, most of the songs roaring at top volume in the arena were from the 1950 through the 1990s, including numerous musical-theater show tunes. A rendition of the hymn “How Great Thou Art” played as hundreds of people milled into the arena about an hour ahead of the rally’s 4:30 start time.
The arena holds 7,700 people and about that many people showed up to support Trump that day. The president claimed that 22,000 people were watching him speak on a jumbotron outside of the arena. Only a few hundred people stood outside when the cameras panned to the view outside the arena.
Trump’s Corinth rally followed a couple of days after former Vice President Kamala Harris visited Clarksdale and Columbus to campaign for Scott Colom.
The president claimed that as a senator, Hyde-Smith has given over $2 billion in funding for 360 projects across the state. But the senator’s website says that total was $1.06 billion for “at least 362 Mississippi projects” from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2026.
“By contrast, Scott Colom—how the hell do you say that guy’s name?” Trump said, mispronouncing “Colom.” “What a name, Colom, he’s campaigning to give drug addicts taxpayer funded welfare, free health care to illegal aliens and he supports deadly sanctuary cities that release illegal alien criminals into your American community. So, look, I don’t have to go into him. He’s a disaster. He wants to take your guns away, he wants to open your borders. You must reelect Cindy Hyde-Smith. Cindy, please come up.”
Hyde-Smith joined the president on stage at his request.
“Is this not the best president in our lifetime?” Hyde-Smith said, smiling at Trump. He noted he was impressed with her brevity. But she had given a ten-minute-long speech earlier in the rally before Trump spoke.
Trump claimed that the last time Democrats controlled Congress during former President Joe Biden’s term, they delivered the highest inflation and energy costs with the “worst trade deficit in American history” while allowing 25 million immigrants to “pour across our borders from all over the world.”
“And if they win the midterms, they will do it all again,” Trump warned.
More than 10 million undocumented immigrants came across the U.S. border during the Biden administration, but that figure is misleading because the the Department of Homeland Security calls border crossings “encounters,” when any migrants are encountered by the Border Patrol and can be returned to their country of origin. DHS data show that over 4 million of migrants encountered during Biden’s presidency have been returned to their country of origin.
Many of Mississippi’s top Republican elected officials attended the rally, including U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, State Auditor Shad White, Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Secretary of State Michael Watson, Agriculture and Commerce Commissioner Andy Gipson, Republican Party Chairman Mike Hurst, Republican Party Vice Chair Lesley Davis, and House Reps. Joey Hood and Jill Ford, Celeste Hurst, Vince Mangold, Bubba Carpenter and Becky Currie.
National, state and local media came to cover the rally, which was Trump’s fourth time in Mississippi since 2016. Before Trump, the most recent president to visit Corinth was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who visited on Nov. 17, 1934, to commemorate Corinth’s role in acting as a test site for the Tennessee Valley Authority system.
Trump reiterated his promise to give all American adult citizens $5,000 to spend in the U.S. if Republicans win the midterm congressional elections “because we’re taking in massive amounts of money through tariffs and record-setting economic success.” Trump has not disclosed how he intends to make those payments. He also celebrated giving $1,776 to 1.5 million members of the military in 2025.
“But the ‘Dumbocrat’ policies won’t allow this to happen. In fact, if the Democrats win, you will have a 1929-style economic depression,” the president claimed. “What they want to do is so bad for our country, you’re going to end up with a massive recession or depression. They have no idea. Just like they like open borders, just like they like transgender for everybody, just like they like men playing in women’s sports, the financial stuff is just as stupid.”
‘You Don’t Look Like a Farmer’
The president spoke for nearly 90 minutes, spending little time discussing issues pertaining to Mississippi. After renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and Lake Ontario to Lake America, he said he wanted to rename the Atlantic Ocean to the American Ocean and noted that he wanted to rename a river, but promised he would not change the Mississippi River’s name.
Almost an hour into his speech, in the midst of discussing renaming bodies of water, he briefly talked about farmers and complained that Canada had “ripped off” the U.S. with 400% tariffs for farmers selling goods to the country. However, an active agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico eliminates tariffs for most products that travel between borders unless those products exceed negotiated quotas.
Trump asked for the farmers in the audience to stand up. A woman with blonde hair rose from her seat. The president expressed disbelief that she could be a farmer.
“You don’t look like a farmer to me. Do all farmers look like you? I don’t think so, but you’re a farmer and you know what I’m talking about,” he said to the woman.
Trump talked about the rising beef prices, saying they have “gone up a little bit but are starting to go down.” The price of beef has increased by 2% within a month of Trump announcing the U.S. would import more beef to lower costs for Americans.
He then asked Hyde-Smith to increase the number of cow herds to help the U.S. produce more beef.
“OK, Cindy, will you please get them up a bit?” the president implored the senator.
Trump said he gave farmers $12 billion in relief to “protect” them from “unfair trade practices” in December 2025. He gave farmers $28 billion in his first term.
“The $28 billion the Trump administration authorized to pay farmers as a result of miscalculating that other countries would retaliate against its trade actions, thereby costing farmers billions of dollars in lost sales, is a lot of money, even by the standards of the federal government,” Forbes reported on Feb. 6, 2020.
Trump also claimed that he gave farmers and truck drivers “the right to repair your own equipment and trucks. Under the ‘Dumbocrats,’ truckers and farmers were prosecuted for fixing their truck. You know that, right? Do you know, I gave pardons two weeks ago to people that were fixing their truck.”
That claim is false. No Democrats have ever “prosecuted” farmers and truck drivers for simply “fixing their truck.” A report from Politico’s E&E News detailed that the men were convicted for violations like deleting and tuning vehicle emissions control software or installing aftermarket “defeat devices” on numerous vehicles.
‘I Thought the Price of Oil Was Going to Go Much, Much Higher’
Earlier at the rally, U.S. House Rep. Trent Kelly, who represents north Mississippi in the 1st Congressional District, claimed that Iran started the war with the U.S. in 1979. Trump used that line in his speech, thanking Kelly for pointing it out.
“President Trump did not start a war with Iran. They have been at war with us since 1979 when they overthrew the shah. And every one of these presidents have tried to negotiate with them, but they want to get a nuclear weapon, and I know gas prices hurt right now, and I know the president’s trying to help all he can. But you know what? They’re still lower right now at the highest corner of Trump than they were under Biden, who has the record high gas prices.”
The U.S. and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran on Feb. 28, 2026, killing the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khameini. Thousands of Iranians have been killed and the U.S. has lost nearly two dozen service members, with hundreds of others injured. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s critical sea shipping lanes, causing significant fuel price disruptions. Despite President Donald Trump promising a swift end to the conflict, the Iran War has gone on for eight months.
Americans are spending more on gas while Trump’s war with Iran agitates the world’s flow of fuel. The national average price for a gallon of gas is $4.22 as of Oct. 29, down from $4.45 a month ago, and up from $3.03 in 2025, AAA motor club data show. The highest cost of gas was $5.01 in 2022 under Biden, while the highest price of diesel was $6.50 on Sept. 22, 2026, under Trump.
“I thought the price of oil was going to go much, much higher, and I was fully prepared to do it because we really had no choice,” Trump said while claiming that gas and oil prices “have come down a tremendous amount.”
He recently enacted a temporary relaxation of a law that bans highway vehicles from using red-dyed, off-road diesel. The waiver ends on Dec. 31.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran was “two weeks” away from having a nuclear bomb, which could strike U.S. cities or attack Europe. Experts have not backed this claim. Trump has also claimed the Iran War is close to ending on dozens of occasions over the last eight months.
“They make great weapons,” he said of Iran. “They’re very smart people. But we’ve beat the sh-t out of them.”
‘Pretend I’m on the Ballot’
As Trump was nearing the hour mark of his speech, he was talking about the renovations he was leading at the White House, including his ballroom. A protester wearing a red “Ole Miss” hoodie quickly marched through the crowd in front of the press barricade, phone recording, while yelling, “Shove that ballroom up your fat a–!” Secret Service members and other security guards grabbed onto the objector and escorted him out of the arena.
Trump discussed his One Big Beautiful Bill, which cut Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and food stamp funding while implementing policies for no tax on tips, social security and overtime.
The Center for American Progress estimates that more than 10 million Americans will be uninsured by 2034 as a result of the Big Beautiful Bill. It says Affordable Care Act plan selections have decreased by 1.2 million Americans and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participation dropped four million Americans as of June 2026. However, most Americans will not feel the effects of the bill until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
“We also made the largest ever investment in the U.S. Armed Forces,” Trump said. “That was Roger Wicker working with me and lots of other people. Thank you, Roger. Great. Stand up, Roger. That’s great. Roger, very powerful. He’s very powerful, and (a) good guy, (a) good man. This includes nearly $400 million this year to bring shipbuilding back to Gulfport and Pascagoula.”
That investment package includes a $283 million contract for the U.S. Navy’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division in Pascagoula, Mississippi, to instigate FF(X) class frigate lead yard support activities and a $99 million October 2026 contract for Pascagoula’s sea trials of the U.S.S. Lyndon B. Johnson.
The president touted poverty rates in the U.S. being the lowest under his tenure. U.S. Census data show poverty rates in 2025 were 10.2% in 2025, a historic low.
“We abolished all discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion policies throughout the federal government,” Trump added. “We got critical race theory and transgender insanity out of our school. We made English the official language of the United States government.
Thank you, Cindy. She’s leading it.”
Throughout his 90-minute speech, Trump slandered journalists and the press eight times, saying, “You know, we have a very corrupt media. That’s the problem,” as people in the crowd booed.
He mentioned several politicians and candidates from other states, crafting lies about them as a comparison to Scott Colom’s campaign, saying, “These guys are all the same.”
Fifty-five percent of Mississippi voters voted in the 2016 presidential election, 43.8% in the 2018 midterm election, 60.4% in the 2020 presidential election, 32.5% in the 2022 midterm election and 57.5% in the 2024 presidential election, Ballotpedia data show.
“So, in this election, if you would, I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot,” Trump said. “And the reason is that, when I’m on the ballot, exactly 49% more people show up. We’ve won every one of those times that I’m on the ballot big. And the problem is, when I’m not, they don’t show up as much. And in one way, it’s a compliment. Another way, you really just have to pretend.”
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