President Trump told Youngstown supporters Monday to elect Jon Husted and Vivek Ramaswamy, blasting Sherrod Brown on borders and Amy Acton over COVID lockdowns.
President Donald Trump took the stage at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown after traveling from Washington, D.C., with YouTuber and boxer Jake Paul and legendary football coach Jon Gruden. Gruden introduced the president after brief remarks hyping Sen. Jon Husted, his former teammate at the University of Dayton. Trump entered to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” and told the crowd to turn out for Husted and Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Breitbart reported that Trump framed the midterms as a direct choice between the America First agenda and a return of the policies he tied to former Sen. Sherrod Brown and former Ohio health director Amy Acton.
Husted holds the Senate seat Vice President JD Vance vacated last year. Ramaswamy, who ran against Trump before endorsing him in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, is the GOP pick for governor. Trump called Ramaswamy “a very smart guy” and “very good friend” and pressed the room to deliver Republican majorities.
Trump put a hard clock on the race and made Husted the vehicle for keeping Ohio in Republican hands.
“Twenty-two days from now, Ohio is going to defeat Sherrod Brown and elect Jon Husted to the United States Senate.”
“Twenty-two days from now, Ohio is going to defeat Sherrod Brown and elect Jon Husted to the United States Senate.”
He tied that outcome to the broader fight for Congress and told voters to “vote to keep America first with Senator Jon Husted.” The pitch matched other recent stops where Trump and Vance hit the Ohio trail as Democrats tried to claw back statewide power.
Gruden’s introduction gave the night a local football flavor. The coach, described as a proud son of Ohio, used his University of Dayton tie to Husted to warm up the room before Trump spoke. Paul, also billed as a proud son of Ohio, made the trip with them but did not supply quoted remarks in the available account.
Trump did not treat Brown as a routine opponent. He cast the Democrat as the face of the last period of Democratic power and warned that a win for Brown would repeat it.
“So the last time that Sherrod Brown and the Radical Democrats had power, they gave us the worst inflation in American history, the highest energy prices in American history, by the way, much higher than it is now, and... we’re artificially high. It’s going to drop like a rock, the worst trade deficit in American history.”
“So the last time that Sherrod Brown and the Radical Democrats had power, they gave us the worst inflation in American history, the highest energy prices in American history, by the way, much higher than it is now, and... we’re artificially high. It’s going to drop like a rock, the worst trade deficit in American history.”
He went further on immigration, claiming Democrats “allowed 25 million people to pour across our borders from all over the world” and that the flow included “drug dealers,” “rapists,” and “11,888 murderers, half of whom committed more than one murder,” who arrived “totally unchecked, totally unvetted.” Trump projected that if Democrats win in November, “they will do the exact same thing again.”
Those border and cost-of-living lines fit a larger pattern of Trump drawing sharp contrasts with Democratic leadership while preparing for sustained political combat, including moves such as when Trump set aside PAC millions ahead of possible Democratic family investigations.
Trump also claimed Brown had spoken two days earlier in favor of open borders, men playing in women’s sports, and “the transgender mutilation of your children.” He closed the attack with a blunt order to the crowd.
“Do not let Sherrod Brown slither his way back into power.”
No independent verification of Brown’s alleged remarks from two days prior appeared in the reporting on the rally itself. The charge stood as Trump’s account from the stage.
Trump spent equal energy elevating Ramaswamy and defining Acton by her time running the Ohio Department of Health from 2019 to 2020.
On Ramaswamy he said the candidate has “got a lot of great plans, like cutting taxes all over the place. You’ll be very happy. You’re going to be amazed at how good he is, how smart he is, and we’re going to elect strong Republican majorities in the House and the Senate, up and down the line.”
“[He’s] got a lot of great plans, like cutting taxes all over the place. You’ll be very happy. You’re going to be amazed at how good he is, how smart he is, and we’re going to elect strong Republican majorities in the House and the Senate, up and down the line.”
Then he turned to Acton in personal and policy terms.
“Vivek is running against a total lunatic named Amy Acton, who shut down Ohio schools during COVID, locked up your factories and your businesses. She made your life miserable and... she would do it again in a second.”
Trump’s case against Acton rested on the school closures and business lockdowns he attributed to her tenure. He offered no softer landing. In his telling, the same approach would return if she won. That framing left little room for nostalgia about pandemic governance and put the governor’s race in the same accountability lane as the Senate fight.
Midterm pressure has already shaped White House messaging in other lanes, including moments when Katie Zacharia took the podium as Trump faced headwinds. The Youngstown speech kept the focus tighter: two Ohio names on the ballot, two opponents defined by inflation, borders, and lockdowns.
The event itself was straightforward political theater with a purpose. Trump flew in, brought recognizable Ohio figures, let Gruden vouch for Husted, and spent his time on stage drawing bright lines. Husted was cast as the vote to keep the Senate seat aligned with Vance’s departure and Trump’s agenda. Ramaswamy was cast as the tax-cutting, competent alternative to Acton’s COVID record.
Brown was tied to inflation, energy costs, trade deficits, and an unsecured border. Acton was tied to closed schools and shuttered businesses. Trump told the room both would repeat the past if given the chance. He also kept the legal and political rivalry with Democrats in view across other fronts, from earlier efforts where Trump petitioned the Supreme Court over a dismissed 2016 campaign lawsuit against Clinton to related bids to revive that fight.
What the Covelli Centre crowd heard was a closing argument delivered early: twenty-two days out, pick Husted and Ramaswamy, or accept the return of the policies Trump listed. The president did not hedge. He named the failures he wanted voters to remember and the candidates he wanted them to reject.
Ohio gets the final say at the ballot box. The record Trump recited is the one Democrats now have to defend.