President Donald Trump brought a new warning to his stump speech on Monday night, telling a packed arena in Park City, Kansas, that the violent unrest now tearing through France is a preview of what Democrats would bring to the United States if they win the midterm elections.
Trump was campaigning for Republican Sen. Roger Marshall at the Heartland Credit Union Arena outside Wichita, in a Senate race Democrats are contesting hard in a state that has not sent a Democrat to the Senate in 94 years. "I love you Kansas, but I'm here for a guy named Roger Marshall," Trump told the crowd.
"When you see burning steeples and raging fires in France, just remember that is what the radical Dumocrats want to do to America."
"We're not going to let that happen to this country," Trump said, pointing to the protests in France as a scenario that could erupt in the United States unless Republicans win. France has seen some of its worst unrest in years: cost-of-living protests descended into rioting and looting over the weekend, leaving about 3,000 businesses damaged or looted, roughly 2,400 people arrested and nearly 1,000 police officers injured. Paris imposed an overnight curfew Monday covering the Place de la République and the Les Halles district, the city hall in Limoges was burned, and the French government ordered localized curfews in the hardest-hit areas.
Turning to Marshall's Democratic opponent, Adam Hamilton, a Methodist megachurch pastor running against Trump's tariff agenda and what he calls the president's "erratic leadership," Trump said: "He wants you to repent for being born White." Marshall, speaking before Trump, leaned on cultural issues, saying stopping "radical Islam" was central to his campaign argument, calling Hamilton "too woke" for Kansas because he supports gay pride parades — a line the crowd loudly booed. "We need someone who can sort heifers and steers," Marshall said.
Hamilton's campaign answered that Marshall's campaign is "sinking." "Nothing said at the rally can distract from the fact Kansans are being crushed by rising gas and diesel prices, struggling to access affordable healthcare, and are tired of Washington corruption," his spokesperson, Tyson Brody, said. In a video released Monday, Hamilton welcomed Trump to Kansas and said the president's supporters have "a place" in his campaign. He said he will work with Trump when it makes sense and stand up for Kansans when Washington policies hurt farmers and rural hospitals.
Kansas is deep-red ground — Trump won the state by 16 points in 2024 — but the Marshall race has tightened enough to draw the president in person as part of a 32-day closing blitz ahead of the November 3 midterms, with Republicans defending narrow majorities in both the House and the Senate. On Monday night, his closing argument in Kansas was the France warning itself: what is burning there, he told the crowd, is what his opponents want to bring here. "We're not going to let that happen to this country," he said.