President Donald Trump gives a speech during a Kentucky midterm elections rally at Truist Arena, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, in Highland Heights, Ky.
USA TODAY Network, Reuters
Appearing at a rally in Northern Kentucky on Saturday, President Donald Trump issued a warning about the future if Democrats win in the midterms, and he promised a major Defense Department investment at a drug manufacturing facility in Winchester if Republicans win.
“If the Republicans win, the Department of War will be investing $100 million in the pharmaceutical company Antheia to revitalize a gigantic drug manufacturing facility in Winchester, Kentucky,” Trump said.
Antheia is a California-based company that says it is committed to “ending drug shortages with advanced biosynthesis,” according to the company’s website.
Trump appeared along with Congressman Andy Barr, Ed Gallrein and Kentucky Republican Party Chairman Robert Benvenuti III at Truist Arena on the Northern Kentucky University campus in Highland Heights.
In remarks that lasted about an hour and a half, Trump told attendees to “pretend I’m on the ballot.”
He made multiple references to “Dumocrats” and their policies on “open borders” and “transgender insanity.”
“They’re going to annihilate your borders, decimate Kentucky farms and energies, mutilate your children and give 25 million illegal aliens amnesty and the right to vote,” he said of Democrats. “Or you can defeat the Democrat communists and vote for more money in your pocket, bigger paychecks to your family, much lower taxes, almost no crime, a booming Kentucky economy and no amnesty for illegal aliens. You get that if you vote Republican.”
He mentioned the war in Iran, saying “it’s going to end very quickly,” and gas prices will go back down.
Trump specifically called out Democrat Charles Booker, who is running against Republican Congressman Andy Barr for Mitch McConnell’s seat in the Senate.
Trump said he and Barr “fight side by side.”
The president described Booker as “a radical” and a “communist lunatic” who he said supports voting rights for felons and reparations and who Trump said wants to defund the police and abolish ICE and the border patrol.
“Nobody respects him. He’s a laughingstock, and he opposes everything Kentucky, he opposes everything that you stand for,” Trump said.
Booker responded in a statement on social media on Saturday afternoon, saying he was “flattered by his baseless attacks on me.”
“It just further proves that he and everyone else knows how close this race is, and they’re scared,” Booker wrote. “Today, we heard a lot about what is apparently ‘radical.’ But in my opinion, what’s really crazy is ignoring the struggles of people across Kentucky and the country.
“While Andy Barr spent the day currying favor with Trump, spreading lies, and sowing division, I continued traveling throughout the state, hearing firsthand about Kentuckian struggles. Andy Barr is sitting by while his constituents cannot afford gas, groceries, and other basic necessities. That’s real lunacy.”
Trump also urged attendees to “get out and vote” for Ed Gallrein, the candidate he hand-picked to replace Rep. Thomas Massie, whom Trump referred to Saturday as “a loser” and “the worst.”
By contrast, he praised Gallrein, a farmer and former Navy SEAL, saying “he is a natural.”
Trump also put in a plug for Ralph Alvarado, who told media outlets before the rally that he had a prior commitment and would not be in attendance.
Trump said Alvarado is “a good guy.”
“He’s in a tight race with a lunatic,” Trump said in an apparent reference to Zach Dembo, Alvarado’s Democratic opponent in Central Kentucky’s 6th District Congressional race.
Trump also reiterated his promise of $5,000 to “all adult citizens” if Republicans win the House and Senate, with the caveat that “you have to spend it in the United States of America.”
He joked that people could consider a trip to Mar-a-Lago, where they could get a burger and a small dessert with their “Trump dividend.”
Early in his remarks, Trump paused to comment on a protester who was being removed from the crowd.
“They’re paid protesters. They get paid to do that,” he said. “They pay them $250.”
“Take him back home to mom,” Trump said. “…They go back home and the mother, especially if she’s a Kentucky mother, she slaps the hell out of ‘em … says, ‘I voted for that man. Don’t you ever do that again.’”
Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Colmon Elridge issued a statement in response to the rally.
“Why was Trump in Kentucky? To try to bail out floundering GOP candidates for Congress — even though his approval numbers here have plummeted by 33 points since he took office, as Kentuckians rightfully blame his war, tariffs and healthcare cuts for soaring prices,” Elridge wrote.
“Not even ‘day one MAGA, no regrets’ Ralph Alvarado thought this rally was worth the gas money.”
This story was originally published October 17, 2026 at 7:55 PM.
