President Trump took the stage in Park City, Kansas, near Wichita, on Monday with two weeks to go before Election Day. Protesters interrupted the opening minutes of his speech at least three times.
Trump called them “paid protesters”, offering no evidence for that assertion, and said there had been “two and a half people” protesting.
He then asked his supporters to carry their backing for him into races across the ballot. “At this election, I'm asking you to pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot,” Trump said.
His principal warning came from France. “If you want to see what's at stake in this election, just look at France,” he told the crowd.
Student-led protests in France began last month over school conditions. They have since widened to include anger over the cost of living and inflation.
Violence and looting spread across France over the weekend, leading to at least 2,400 arrests. Authorities estimate that at least 3,000 businesses were damaged or ransacked in several French cities.
In Limonge, demonstrators set the municipality’s historic town hall on fire on Saturday. The roof and clock tower of the 143-year-old building collapsed.
Trump and Vice President Vance have presented those events as a warning for US voters ahead of the November 3 election. Vance responded on X to a video of the Limonge town hall burning, writing: “I pray that France, a beautiful country of amazing people, will stop this madness before more of its landmarks burn. And I hope Americans are paying attention. This is the future congressional Democrats seek for your country.”
At the rally, Trump described France as “a once great nation that is being conquered, looted and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists and communists who hate Christianity”.
Trump declared that “the Democrat agenda is a plan to extinguish Western civilization”. He added: “This is what's happening to France. They want it to happen to our country.”
The president used the appearance to support incumbent Republican Senator Roger Marshall and Republican gubernatorial candidate Ty Masterson. Marshall faces a race rated a toss-up by the Cook Political Report.
Trump returned to the subject in the Oval Office on Tuesday, saying: “When you look at France, and it happened in Italy too, smaller scale, but it's right there, it's simmering.”
He also recalled telling French President Emmanuel Macron: “now close your border or you will lose France.”
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