First Sitting Presidential Visit to Clarksville in 34 Years
Clarksville, TN — President Donald Trump spent more than an hour and a half on stage at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville on Saturday, October 10th, urging Tennessee voters to back Republican candidates in the November 3rd midterm election and promising a $5,000 payment to every adult American if the GOP holds both chambers of Congress.
Introduced by musician Kid Rock, Trump acknowledged that Tennessee is not a battleground state. He said he came to thank voters who supported him in three presidential elections, and asked the crowd to treat the midterms as if his own name were on the ballot.
“Pretend. Just pretend that I’m running,” Trump said. He reminded the audience that early voting in Tennessee begins October 14th.
Endorsements Up and Down the Ballot
Trump called on supporters to reelect U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty and to elect U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn as governor. Both joined him on stage for brief remarks. Hagerty, who served as Trump’s Tennessee finance chairman in 2016 and later as ambassador to Japan, thanked the president for coming. Blackburn said Tennesseans value what she called the “big five”: faith, family, freedom, hope and opportunity.
Donald Trump attacked Hagerty’s Democratic opponent, Marquita Bradshaw, linking her to the Democratic Socialists of America. He also criticized Blackburn’s opponent, Memphis City Councilmember Jerri Green, saying she wants to end the Memphis Safe Task Force and take away residents’ guns.
He brought congressional candidates Charlie Hatcher (5th District), Johnny Garrett (6th District), Representative Matt Van Epps (7th District) and Brent Taylor (9th District) on stage. Trump called Taylor’s opponent, Justin Pearson, “a communist.” He also endorsed incumbent Representatives Scott DesJarlais, Tim Burchett, Diana Harshbarger, Chuck Fleischmann and David Kustoff, and urged Kentucky voters across the state line to elect Representative Andy Barr to the U.S. Senate.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, Tennessee Republican Party Chair Scott Golden, former Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and federal judicial nominee Samuel Atkinson were also recognized from the stage.
The $5,000 “Trump Dividend”
The centerpiece of the speech was Donald Trump’s promise of a $5,000 payment to every adult citizen if Republicans keep the House and Senate.
“I am going to give all adult citizens in the United States of America $5,000,” Donald Trump said, adding that only Republicans could deliver it because of revenue from tariffs. He estimated the cost at roughly $1 trillion and warned that a Democratic victory would bring “a 1929 style economic depression.”
He pointed to the $1,776 payment he gave members of the military last year as proof that he keeps such promises.
Local Mentions
Donald Trump highlighted Korea Zinc’s planned smelter at the former Nyrstar site in Clarksville. “Thanks to my tariffs, Korea Zinc is investing over $6 billion in creating 740 jobs right here in Montgomery County and Smith County,” he said, calling it the first new mineral smelter in the United States since 1979.
He also cited a $275 million General Motors investment at its Spring Hill plant to build turbocharged Cadillac engines.
Trump drew one of the loudest responses of the afternoon when he mentioned nearby Fort Campbell, “the proud home of the legendary 101st Airborne Division,” noting that soldiers from the post had been deployed to the southern border.
He spent several minutes on the Tennessee Valley Authority, criticizing past CEO pay and crediting board members he appointed with bringing the top salary down to $500,000. He said TVA is moving away from wind power and back to what he called “clean, beautiful coal,” along with oil, gas and nuclear power.
Crime and Memphis
Donald Trump praised the Memphis Safe Task Force, the federal, state and local operation he created in September 2025. “We removed 12,000 dangerous career criminals,” he said, and credited the governor, Memphis police, the mayor and the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
He told a story attributed to the late FedEx founder Fred Smith, saying Smith once told him board members could not safely walk a block from FedEx headquarters to their hotel without an armored vehicle.
Donald Trump also claimed the national murder rate has fallen to its lowest level in 125 years and credited National Guard deployments in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans with sharp drops in crime.
Immigration, Iran and Venezuela
Donald Trump repeated his claim that 25 million people crossed the southern border under former President Joe Biden, and said no one has entered illegally through the southern border in the past 17 months.
On foreign policy, he described the ongoing war with Iran as necessary to stop the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He said 18 American service members have died, and he spoke of meeting their families at Dover Air Force Base. He called the U.S. operation in Venezuela a “one-day war” and said the country is now sending the United States “billions” in oil.
He also discussed his executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America” and said he is considering renaming an ocean before leaving office.
Transgender Issues
Donald Trump returned several times to transgender issues. He pledged to “enshrine in permanent law” bans on transgender women competing in women’s sports and on gender-affirming care for minors. Using his own language, he said, “We will not allow the transgender mutilization of your children.”
He did an impression of a transgender weightlifter and described an unnamed athlete who he said beat a women’s record by 111 pounds, along with an unnamed long-distance race he said was won by more than seven hours. Donald Trump said he talks about the issue mostly before elections because he believes it helps Republicans.
Closing Pledges
Donald Trump closed with a list of promises tied to a Republican Congress. They included making his tax cuts permanent, including no tax on tips, overtime or Social Security; passing a “No Invasion of Our Country Act” to bar future presidents from opening the border; ending cash bail; seeking the death penalty for large-scale drug dealers, human traffickers, and anyone who kills a police officer; and passing the Save America Act, which would require voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote.
