Donald Trump has praised one of his MAGA supporters for allegedly punching a protester at his latest rally and compared him to boxing legend Evander Holyfield, a guest speaker at Trump’s South Carolina stop. The president faced interruptions from hecklers at several points during his speech, but tensions peaked when his remarks turned to immigration.
“The hardest thing we have to do is nab these career criminals and get them the hell out of here…” Trump said, just as TV cameras swung toward the crowd. The broadcast showed an older man in a red cap raising his hands and stepping back after apparently throwing a haymaker at the protester as police rushed into his row.
Officers apprehended the heckler and escorted him out of the rally. “Wow, thank you!” Trump commented. “That was great. Wow. Man, I love – I watched that. That was unbelievable. Is everybody OK? Who’s the guy that threw that punch? Who threw that punch? Man!”
“That was great”
He continued: “But who’s the guy that threw the punch? You are? You reminded me of Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield. No, the guy stood up, and he just let that little – and he got whacked! Man!” Trump said of heckling, “They don’t realize it’s really dangerous to do that. 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 practice. And as he’s in the process of the screech, he got whacked!”
WHNS reported that hecklers interrupted the president six times within the first 10 minutes of the campaign event. About 20 minutes later, officials kicked out three more people. The incidents followed multiple people being kicked out of a rally in North Carolina a day earlier.
Trump traveled to South Carolina to support the campaign of appointed Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), who is seeking a full six-year term after filling her late brother Lindsey Graham’s seat in July. He attacked Graham’s Democratic opponent, Annie Andrews, claiming she “supports giving sex toys and other obscene materials to seriously confuse young people and children.”
Trump also claimed that she was “a fanatical transgender activist.” He said, “She’s really a rabid advocate for taxpayer-funded child sexual mutilation. She’s a mutilizer. You know what a mutilizer is? That’s a person that doesn’t do good things.” Andrews previously told Forbes last month that she does not “support biological men playing in women’s sports and I also don’t support and have never performed gender surgery on minors.”
The trip to South Carolina is Trump’s latest stop as he tries to boost Republicans’ bid in the upcoming midterm elections. A new Ipsos poll finds that Democrats have a growing lead over Republicans on economic issues, with 37% of Americans trusting Democrats while 28% trust Republicans.
Published: Oct 23, 2026 08:00 am