Protesters repeatedly interrupt Trump during campaign rally: ‘I f—king hate you!’

The president faced back-to-back disruptions in Kansas as polls show declining approval and growing challenges for Republicans ahead of Nov. 3.

A recurring theme of Donald Trump‘s recent midterm election rallies has been the presence of protesters. The president’s MAGA rallies have been regularly interrupted, sometimes multiple times in one city. Trump’s Monday night rally in Kansas was no different.

The 80-year-old president faced back-to-back interruptions from protesters during his nearly two-hour speech in Wichita. After responding to a protester who appeared to repeatedly yell, “Shut up!” Trump dismissed the angry heckler as a “paid protester.”

“They’re paid protesters,” he declared. Trump appeared to suggest that it’s “very dangerous” to be at one of his rallies before he was again interrupted by another protester.

“Another one. Listen to that one. I can tell by the voice they get paid,” said Trump. Seconds later, the protester is heard saying, “I f—king hate you!”

As the protester is escorted out of the arena, Trump says to applause, “How great is it to be at a Trump rally?”

Monday’s rowdy disruptions are not new to recent Trump rallies. During a rally last week in Youngstown, Ohio, an anti-Trump protester was pushed and punched by at least two male Trump supporters. Rather than discourage the violence, President Trump mocked the protester’s weight.

As gas prices and the cost of everyday essentials like groceries continue to climb amid Trump’s nearly 8-month-long war in Iran, the president’s popularity among Americans is sinking to new lows.

As theGrio reported on Monday, a new Washington Post/Ipsos poll of more than 2,500 American adults found that only 33% approve of Trump’s job as president. It marks Trump’s lowest approval rating since the poll was conducted, dating back to his first term in office. Trump has even fallen out of grace with some of his own supporters who voted for him in 2024.

While the president’s claim that protesters are being paid dismisses the hostility toward his presidency as a partisan distraction, several polls across the country show his party is growing unpopular in the days leading up to the midterm elections on Nov. 3. As a result, Republicans stand to lose control of the U.S. House of Representatives and potentially the U.S. Senate as well. Democrats taking power in Congress would signal trouble for Trump’s last two years as president, a period also known as a lame-duck presidency, when an incumbent president cannot seek re-election.

Democratic leadership has made clear they intend to launch several investigations into the Trump administration, including its federal cuts administered by Elon Musk’s now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency, the White House’s immigration enforcement that left several U.S. citizens dead, and potential ties between Trump’s policies and his ballooning personal wealth, to the tune of billions of dollars. What’s more, Trump has repeatedly expressed concerns that he will be impeached for a historic third time if Democrats win majority control of Congress.

While protest disruptions are not unique to Trump, they do suggest a national frustration bubbling to the surface. However, it remains to be seen to what degree that frustration will manifest in the election results in two weeks.

Democratic strategist Jamarr Brown told theGrio that the danger looming over Republicans is of their own making, stemming from their failure to stand up to Trump’s policies that are hurting the economy.

“That danger has come from his own record and their own voters experiencing higher costs and the war and DEI cuts and culture wars and everything else that’s come out of this administration,” said Brown. “He’s not polling well. His Republican candidates are not polling well, and so ultimately, at the end of the day, they’ve got to…deflect from the reality of what’s really happening to the American people at the hands of their cause.”