Demonstrators interrupt Trump rally in Texas

SAN ANTONIO

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo)

U.S. President Donald Trump was repeatedly interrupted by protesters on Oct. 7 at a rally in Texas, with media reporting about a dozen people were escorted from the rally.

The 80-year-old Republican brushed off the interlopers as “paid protesters” and the crowd repeatedly broke into chants of “U-S-A!” and booed them.

Trump has held campaign-style rallies across the country in recent weeks in a bid to aid vulnerable candidates on the ballot in November’s midterms.

His party stands to lose the majority in both houses of Congress, which could mean fresh accountability from a branch of American government intended to check his power.

One person who disrupted Trump’s roughly two-hour speech was booed out of the auditorium while he appeared to be filming himself.

Another heckler appeared soon after, wearing what appeared to be a “SOS Cuba” shirt, referring to the Caribbean island subject to crippling U.S. sanctions.

Texas is the nation’s most populous reliably Republican state, where Trump won in 2024 by almost 14 percentage points. But with Election Day less than a month away, Trump’s poor approval ratings, the Iran war and soaring gas prices have threatened Republicans in virtually every state.

In a sign of Trump’s poor standing, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott did not attend the evening rally. A three-term Republican governor who won reelection in 2022 by roughly 11 percentage points, Abbott is locked in a competitive re-election race against Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa.