Trump Cancels His Kansas Rally and Erupts at a Reporter Who Asked Why: 'I Don't Feel I Have to Go to Kansas'
The Salina rally set for Friday was scrapped Thursday with no reason given. Asked about it after landing from South Carolina, the president said Sen. Roger Marshall is 'doing very well' - and aimed the rest of his answer at the man who asked.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump canceled a campaign rally set for Salina, Kansas, on Friday, scrapping the event Thursday with no reason provided - and then erupted at the reporter who asked him about it. The exchange came after Air Force One landed from Rock Hill, South Carolina, where Trump had campaigned for Sen. Darline Graham. A Reuters reporter asked whether the president had canceled the trip because he is, in the reporter's words, sick of traveling. "Oh you're sick to ask that question. You are sick," Trump said.
"Look at this guy. He's way out of shape," Trump said of the reporter, adding that he is no longer going to Kansas because incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall is "doing very well." He continued: "You know what the reason is? I don't feel like I have to go to Kansas. I'm going to Florida tomorrow. You've been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape. You look like hell." Trump holds a rally in Daytona, Florida, on Friday. The White House said he will instead hold a tele-rally for Marshall and other Republican midterm candidates, and that he will connect with Americans through more than 20 tele-rallies before Election Day.
The cancellation lands in a state that has become an unexpected battleground. Kansas has not elected a Democratic U.S. senator since 1932, and Trump carried it by 16 points in 2024 - but CNN's new poll puts Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton ahead of Marshall 49 to 45, with 57 percent of Kansas likely voters disapproving of Trump's job performance. The Salina event would have been Trump's second Kansas rally of the homestretch; he has held more than two dozen rallies in the closing weeks, often speaking for nearly two hours, and his voice has turned hoarse on the trail.
The Kansas race is one of four Senate battlegrounds where CNN's Thursday polls showed Democrats leading - Michigan, Texas and Maine were the others - as Republicans fight to hold a 53-47 Senate. Whether a tele-rally moves the same voters as a president on a stage is the bet the White House is now making in Kansas; the state's voters answer on Tuesday.
