PARK CITY, Kansas — President Donald Trump railed against Democrats as anti-Christian extremists, comparing them at a rally Monday night to the “jihadists” and “radicals” whom he blamed for destructive protests in France and asserting that the state’s Democratic Senate candidate, a pastor, “openly mocks Jesus.”
Trump was in Kansas to support several Republicans on the ballot, especially Sen. Roger Marshall, who faces a surprisingly tight reelection race in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.
Marshall, a physician and first-term senator, faces Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor. The dead heat that polls show in their race highlights the immense risks that Trump’s party faces in the midterm elections now two weeks away.
Before Trump arrived, Hamilton’s campaign publisheda video of the Democratic candidate welcoming the president to the state and saying he’d always be willing to “sit down and have a civil conversation” with him.
But at Monday night’s rally, Marshall and Trump lobbed attacks at the Democrat. Marshall called him “the most radical, liberal Democrat to ever make it through a primary in Kansas” and claimed that some 20 years ago the pastor protected a sexual predator at Hamilton’s church. Hamilton has said Marshall is misrepresenting his church’s response to the allegations against a church camp volunteer.
Trump, citing Hamilton’s stance on transgender issues, said the pastor “openly mocks Jesus.” And after referencing the issue related to the 20-year-old allegations, Trump said, “That’s all you need to know after the election is over, is to find out that you’ve elected a pervert. That’s all you need to know.”
Trump claimed that Hamilton, who has drawn support from the affluent Kansas City suburbs where his church is based, is “pretending to be a moderate.”
Hamilton’s campaign said in response that “Roger Marshall’s campaign is sinking, and Washington is panicking.”
“Nothing said at the rally can distract from the fact Kansans are being crushed by rising gas and diesel prices, struggling to access affordable health care, and are tired of Washington corruption,” said campaign spokesperson Tyson Brody.
A Senate win in Kansascould be an unlikely pathway for Democrats to gain a majority in the Senate. To win the Senate, Democrats need to flip at least two seats in states Trump won by double digits in 2024.
Trump, who acknowledged that the Kansas seat is in play, set the stakes, telling voters that a vote for “any Democrat” in November would be a vote to let a small group of “extremists” hold the country “hostage.”
He referred several times to strong support he has received from Christian voters and sought to tie Hamilton and other Democrats to the party’s Senate candidate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, who is Muslim. He referred to the candidate as “Mohammed,” and said at one point that former president Barack Obama — who is campaigning for El-Sayed — was “going to be testifying for Mohammed.”
He widened that theme by references to the riots and looting in France, where protests over rising living costs escalatedover the weekend, with more than 2,000 people detained by Sunday.
In the Park City arena, a Fox News segment about the protests played on a large screen and, later, Trump warned that the demonstrations are a cautionary tale for the United States.
“If you want to see what’s at stake in this election, just look at what’s happening in France, a once great nation, that is being conquered, looted and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists and communists who hate Christianity, and they hate, frankly, Western civilization itself,” Trump said.
“When you see burning steeples and raging fires in France, just remember that is what the radical Democrats want to do in America.”
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