The president appeared to take great delight in the altercation.
Posted on Oct 22, 2026 UTC
Donald Trump’s apparent delight at seeing a protester seemingly being attacked in the audience during his speech at a 2026 midterm election campaign rally in South Carolina drew fierce condemnation.
Fox News’ livestream of Trump stumping for South Carolina Republican Sen. Darline Graham at Clemson University on Wednesday showed multiple people heckling the president. Watch from the 20:30 point here:
View this video on YouTube
Fox News / Via youtube.comDuring one interruption, as Trump railed against immigration, the camera panned to what appeared to be a man being attacked by another audience member.
Law enforcement officers appeared to escort the protester away, while the alleged attacker appeared to remain in place, something Trump’s subsequent comments also appeared to confirm.
The president watched the incident unfold. “Wow, thank you, that was great. Man,” he said as a man was removed and chants of “USA, USA” rang out from the crowd.
Trump continued: “Wow. Man. I loved that, I watched that. Man. You know, I watched that, I saw that. That was incredible. Wow. That was unbelievable. Is everybody OK? Yes? Who’s the guy that threw that punch? Who threw that punch?”
Trump said: “Man. Man. You know what you reminded me of? I saw it. I’m looking right at that area. And this lunatic, this, actually, I’m not supposed to talk about looks. He’s a very unattractive looking guy, actually. Once I turned political I had to say looks don’t matter. I could see the most beautiful woman and I don’t notice it, but that guy was a really unattractive guy. But who’s the guy that threw the punch? You are. You know, you reminded me of Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield.”
The reference to former boxing champion Evander Holyfield, who was at the rally, drew more cheers from the audience.
“No, the guy stood up, and he just let that little… and he got whacked. Man,” Trump said, prompting further cheers.
“They don’t realize it’s really dangerous to do that. It takes, you gotta give them credit,” he added. “It takes courage to do that at a Trump rally. He got whacked. Just. He started, you know, that screech. Whatever the hell they do, whatever they’re … and as he’s in the process of the screech, he got whacked. Evander, he wants your autograph, that man. Don’t fight him. Evander, don’t fight him.”
Trump then returned to his remarks on immigration.
Critics slammed Trump’s response and the incident as a whole as “depraved,” “disturbing” and more:
@Linkin1319 / Fox News / Via x.com
@Redmermaid54 / Fox News / Via x.com
I don’t know which is more disturbing: the President of the United States’s jubilation over an American being punched in the face, or the audience’s celebration of it. https://t.co/2R651XJ7by
— Danean (@DaneanHere2) October 22, 2026@DaneanHere2 / Fox News / Via x.com
@kiddwikked / Fox News / Via x.com
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.

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