President Donald Trump finished his sprint to the midterm elections Sunday night with a final push in Iowa and Kansas, as a doomsday poll showed Republican candidates behind in all seven key Senate races.
Trump hoped that headlining 30 rallies – and pumping up his MAGA base – would prevent a blue tsunami, where the GOP majorities in the House and Senate are wiped out.
But a late-breaking New York Times/Siena poll showed that in every one of the seven toss-up Senate races, the Democrats have the advantage, including in the two states Trump visited on Sunday.
The President spent more than two hours on a rally stage in Dubuque, Iowa, to boost GOP Senate hopeful, Representative Ashley Hinson.
As he has at other rallies, he drew attention to 43-year-old Hinson’s physique.
‘I knew Ashley for a long time, and she was a little bit heavier. OK? She was,’ Trump told the crowd. ‘And she went out – the old-fashioned way too, not with the, you know, give me a shot.’
At that moment, he was interrupted by a protester.
‘They always do it, right in the middle of my punchline!’ the President complained.
President Donald Trump arrives at his final campaign rally of the 2026 midterms Sunday night in Salina, Kansas
President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally in Salina, Kansas, with the Qatari-gifted Air Force One parked behind him and a Elvis-Trump mash-up on the rally’s jumbotrons
He then got back to his story about Hinson’s weight.
‘She was great the other way, but she put herself in shape,’ Trump said. ‘And she did that for you,’ he told the audience, giving Hinson a glowing endorsement.
Also at the Iowa rally, Trump addressed the political bombshell of the day: Michigan Democratic Representative Haley Stevens endorsing Republican Senate hopeful Mike Rogers over Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
Stevens and El-Sayed were not seeing eye to eye on Israel, which erupted into Sunday’s about-face, which got Stevens kicked out of Michigan’s Democratic Party.
‘It was just an incredible thing. She just went out and she endorsed Mike Rogers. And Mike Rogers is doing well. He’s apple pie. Mike Rogers is apple pie,’ Trump said.
He also said he’d like to see Stevens join the Republican Party.
Stevens ran against El-Sayed in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary, so many in the party saw her endorsement of Rogers as sour grapes.
Trump brought up El-Sayed multiple times at both rallies, again saying the Senate would need a ‘metal detector’ for the Muslim Democrat should he win.
President Donald Trump (right) stands onstage alongside Iowa Republican Senate hopeful, Representative Ashley Hinson (left), who he complimented for losing weight
An attendee at President Donald Trump’s Dubuque, Iowa, rally was sporting a T-shirt that read, ‘I love ICE raids’
President Donald Trump gestures as he talks about the ‘weave’ during his Dubuque, Iowa rally, where his speech stretched for more than two hours
President Donald Trump gestures to his crowd Sunday in Dubuque, Iowa, where he held the first of two final midterm campaign rallies
‘We’re not going to let the jihadists, the communists, whoever the h*** we got. I shouldn’t use the word. Should I use it or not?’ he asked the Dubuque crowd. ‘We’ve got more crap running for office,’ Trump then said, enunciating ‘crap.’
‘We’re not going to stand for it,’ he added.
The President’s Sunday double-header was announced Friday after both rallies had been cancelled by Trump less than 24 hours before.
The White House put them back on Trump’s schedule after he blew up at a Reuters reporter who had asked him Thursday whether he was getting ‘sick’ of all the travel.
Proving that wasn’t the case, in Iowa, Trump spoke for more than two hours, nearly breaking his own rally speech record.
‘This isn’t rambling. This isn’t rambling. This is genius,’ the President told the crowd at one hour and 17 minutes in.
He spoke for one hour and 24 minutes in Salina, Kansas, after dazzling the crowd with an Air Force One flyover.
‘I could have been home watching television or some crappy thing,’ he joked once onstage.
Kansas Senator Roger Marshall watches President Donald Trump speak at his final campaign rally in Salina, Kansas
President Donald Trump (right) brought Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) onstage during his final midterm campaign rally in Salina, Kansas
Trump then explained it was important for him to come out and once again rally for Senator Roger Marshall, who’s facing a tough reelection fight against Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton.
‘We’re shutting it down tonight, can you believe it? I wanted to make you the last but the best,’ Trump said.
‘I did not want to interrupt your football game, but maybe I should have,’ he then added.
The Kansas City Chiefs were beaten by the Chicago Bears earlier that afternoon.
‘That was a nasty ending, wasn’t it?’
In the hour that followed, Trump went after some of his favorite Democratic punching bags, including El-Sayed and Representative Ilhan Omar.
He, again, promised Americans $5,000 checks if the Republicans win the midterms.
Trump also made Secretary of State Marco Rubio come onstage.
‘He’s getting a little too popular; I’m not happy about this,’ Trump said. ‘I don’t like it. I don’t like it. He gets any more popular, I’m going to have to say, “you’re fired.”‘
When it wrapped, he danced vigorously to YMCA, including with a golf swing motion.
President Donald Trump (left) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (right) embrace onstage at the President’s rally Sunday afternoon in Dubuque, Iowa, where the President spoke for more than two hours
President Donald Trump waves from the top of the stairs as he boards Air Force One after delivering one final campaign rally speech Sunday night in Salina, Kansas ahead of the midterms
Trump leaves the campaign trail with polls showing the Democrats likely flipping the House of Representatives.
They only need to win three additional seats.
The final NYT/Siena poll showed Democrats in position to win Senate seats in Kansas, Texas, Maine, Ohio and Michigan – though Stevens’ high-profile defection could impact the race.
More narrowly, the Democratic candidate was ahead in Iowa and Alaska.
The same polls in 2024, however, had Kamala Harris leading or tied with Trump in six of seven battleground states.
In the Senate, the Democrats need to net four seats to gain control.
In Iowa, House Speaker Mike Johnson came onstage and told the MAGA crowd to ignore the polls.
‘And I can tell you: you can dismiss the polls,’ he assured the crowd. ‘OK. The polls are wrong around the country.’
He also briefly tried doing a Trump impression and praised the President’s stamina after all of these rallies.
‘Sleep is for sissies,’ Johnson said.
