Trump Tells Corinth Crowd 'Pretend That I'm on the Ballot' in Hourlong Speech for Hyde-Smith

President Donald Trump spoke for more than an hour Monday night at Crossroads Arena in Corinth, Mississippi, campaigning for Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in her race against Democrat Scott Colom and Independent Ty Pinkins, the Clarion Ledger reported in its live coverage of the event. Trump opened by attacking Colom as a candidate of the "radical left" and closed the loop for the crowd of about 2,000 that had gathered by late afternoon with a direct instruction: "Pretend that I'm on the ballot," he said.

Trump defended his tariff policy at length, calling "tariffs" one of his favorite words and arguing they keep companies in the United States. "You don't have any tariffs if you build your plant in Mississippi or in the United States," the president said. The Clarion Ledger's fact-check noted that importers, not foreign countries, pay the tariffs and pass increases on to American customers, and that an analysis by We Pay the Tariffs put the amount Mississippi importers paid between March 2025 and August 2026 at $2.7 billion.

In a lighter stretch, Trump mused about the landmarks he has renamed for America — the Gulf of America and, by an August executive order, Lake Ontario as Lake America — and promised the crowd he would never rename the Mississippi River, turning to Sens. Roger Wicker and Hyde-Smith to say he thought they would never forgive him if he did. Some in the crowd booed the promise, shouting that he should rename the river too.

Toward the end of the speech, a heckler crossed the arena shouting for Trump to "release the Epstein files," the Clarion Ledger reported. Trump told him to leave; audience members booed him and he was escorted out, and Trump dismissed him as a paid protester, saying billionaire George Soros was likely responsible for paying him. Trump also repeated his claim that Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota should be removed from Congress over her name and immigration history; Omar has repeatedly called the claim baseless, and the Clarion Ledger noted she has not admitted fraud or offered to resign.

Before Trump took the stage, Gov. Tate Reeves warned the crowd against complacency — "Next Tuesday is a dangerous day for you to be complacent" — and touted more than $85 billion in economic development that he said has made Mississippi "red-hot." Mississippi has no early voting; absentee ballots can be cast in circuit clerk offices through Saturday, October 31, ahead of the November 3 election. Trump's Texas swing follows on Tuesday, with rallies in Corpus Christi and Lubbock.