President Donald Trump’s stump speech for South Carolina Senator Darline Graham on Friday was briefly interrupted by a protester. Trump, however, appeared unfazed by the interjection, quipping that the demonstrator’s “mom is voting for us.”
The disruption did little to derail the president’s pitch for Graham, who is running in Tuesday’s GOP primary runoff. Trump urged Palmetto State voters to cast their ballots for her, while praising what he cast as her attentiveness to pocketbook concerns.
The campaign appearance came after Graham — who was appointed to complete her late brother’s term and is now seeking a full six-year term — made an awkward admission during a debate this week, saying she was “not that informed” on national security issues.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Trump said he was buoyed by a Supreme Court ruling allowing him, for now, to press ahead with construction of his gargantuan White House ballroom.
Much of the roughly 80-minute address, though, followed the familiar contours of a typical Trump rally: attacks on Democrats, warnings that they are “full on communists” bent on destroying the country, and a rosy assessment of a U.S. economy — which he claimed is booming under his stewardship.
“We were a dumb, stupid country led by a very, very stupid person,” he said. “We’re the smart country now.”
Roughly 20 minutes through the president’s speech at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center on Friday, a male protester rose from the crowd and interrupted Trump, who stood silently at the podium and watched for several moments.
The man wore a black T-shirt reading, “Kill Your Local Pedophile,” and video footage showed him standing to display the message.
Much of the crowd booed and began chanting “USA,” while one man in an American-flag shirt appeared to give the protester the middle finger. About a minute later, the protester was escorted from the room.
“That's all right,” Trump said from the podium.
“That person's going home to mom, gonna get scolded because mom is voting for us,” he continued. “You know, mom is on it.”
Early on during his remarks, the president expressed that he was in “a very good mood” due to a recent Supreme Court ruling.
“I didn't mention this to Darline because today we just learned that the big decision of the United States Supreme Court came down,” he said. “ And we have a ruling that — it's proceed. When they say proceed, I think that's a good thing.”
Earlier on Friday, Chief Justice John Roberts issued a one-page decision which blocked lower court orders that would have halted above-ground construction of the 90,000-square-foot event space.
“It's going to be the greatest of its kind anywhere that's ever been built, and it's something that presidents have wanted to be built for over 150 years,” the 80-year-old president said of the ballroom.
“And as an example, in two weeks, President Xi of China is coming, and I wish we had a ballroom, but in a very short period of time, in a year from now, you'll have one of the greatest anywhere in the world,” he added, referring to Xi’s upcoming summit with Trump in September.
The ballroom, currently under construction in the space where the East Wing once stood, has an estimated price tag of at least $400 million. The White House has said it will be completed by 2028.
Throughout his speech, the president sprinkled praise for Graham, who has never previously held elected office and formerly led the South Carolina Commission for the Blind.
Trump said he backed Graham — whom he publicly urged to seek a full term — in order “to honor” her late brother, Lindsey Graham, one of the president’s closest allies on Capitol Hill.
“You have to defeat the Dumocrats and elect Darline Graham,” Trump said.
He also drew a contrast between the senator and her late brother. Lindsey Graham, Trump said, was “very much about the world,” an apparent reference to his commitment to foreign policy. In his eulogy for the senator last month, Trump had said Lindsey Graham “never saw a war that he didn't like.”
“But she's more about affordability,” Trump said of Darline Graham, who was seated nearby. “She's about what we have, how much a loaf of bread is going to cost, how much beef is going to cost. Beef is coming down rapidly, by the way. But she was very much about affordability.”
The remarks came three days after Graham stumbled over a national security question during a GOP Senate primary debate with her opponent, Rep. Ralph Norman.
Asked during the televised debate whether Taiwan was a relevant national-security priority, Graham replied: “I’m just going to be honest here…I’m not that informed on national security…national security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military.”
Ahead of Friday’s rally, Trump defended Graham’s response after critics accused her of being unprepared.
“She’s very smart, and she was being honest,” Trump told reporters en route to Myrtle Beach. “She’s into the price of groceries. … She is going to do what the military wants, and really what the president wants.”
On Tuesday, voters across the state will decide Tuesday whether Graham or Norman secures the GOP nomination on the ballot this November. Whoever comes out on top will face off against Democrat Annie Andrews.
