Donald Trump was briefly interrupted at a Mississippi rally on Monday when an angry heckler shouted: “Shove that ballroom up your fat a**.”
The confrontation took place at the Crossroads Arena in Corinth, Mississippi, as Trump continued his midterm campaign tour.
In footage from the event, Trump, 80, told the crowd: “What I have been doing in the past is walking off the stage, to the consternation of the people that protect us.”
The protester then shouted the crude remark from the audience, prompting Trump to pause and briefly stop speaking.
“Oh, go home,” Trump replied. “Go home, go home.”
Trump smiled and laughed as supporters reacted loudly to the interruption. The crowd then broke into a chant of “USA, USA, USA.”
He went on to claim that the heckler was a paid demonstrator, saying: “He gets paid, you know they’re paid protesters, they get paid $250 by, they think its Soros.”
The protester’s comment was aimed at the large ballroom Trump is having built at the White House after the former East Wing was demolished.
Trump has said the venue, which is planned with lavish golden fixtures, will provide a secure location for major events and eventually save taxpayers money.
However, his unpopular war with Iran and the continuing rise in living costs have led some of his supporters to reconsider the project, viewing it as wasteful and disconnected from their concerns. Midterm polling has also pointed to the possibility of major Republican losses.
Monday’s exchange was not Trump’s first clash with protesters in recent weeks. At a South Carolina rally last week, at least six demonstrators disrupted the event within its first 20 minutes.
Trump responded at that rally by insisting the protesters were “all paid” and calling them “a bunch of losers.”
Donald Trump was briefly interrupted by an angry heckler at a Mississippi rally on Monday, who shouted: “Shove that ballroom up your fat a**”
Trump told the heckler to “go home” and accused him of being paid to protest
A rendering of Trump’s new White House ballroom. The president says it will provide a secure setting for large events and save money over time. As opposition to his war with Iran grows, some former supporters have also turned against the project
Trump’s ballroom is expected to cost upwards of $600 million and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2028, according to official renderings
Protests have continued to feature at Trump’s midterm rallies, including an Ohio event on October 12 that was disrupted by hecklers.
At that rally, a protester wearing a shirt that said “Release the Epstein Files” was punched and kicked before being dragged from the venue.
The demonstration triggered a frenzy among attendees, after which Trump again mocked the person as a “paid protester.”
“Oh, he’s gotta’ go on a diet. He’s a fat guy, wow. Wow. Gotta’ go on a diet fast. We all do,” Trump said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
He then repeated a joke he’s often told of protesters at rallies, that their ‘mother and father voted for me,’ to huge applause.
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With the midterm elections entering the home stretch, the campaign trail in recent days became a tit-for-tat battle between Trump and his predecessor in the White House, Barack Obama.
On Saturday, Obama captured headlines by mocking Trump’s renovation of the White House, saying the gold decorations ‘looked like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.’
Obama added: ‘Guy’s building a ballroom that’s bigger than the White House! Paved over the Rose Garden, put a helicopter pad on the South Lawn and there’s gold everywhere!’
The protester at Monday’s rally was booed and jeered as he was escorted out
Another of Trump’s events in Ohio on October 12 was also plagued by protesters, as a demonstrator with a shirt reading ‘Release the Epstein Files’ was punched and kicked furiously at the rally
On Saturday, Obama captured headlines by mocking Trump’s renovation of the White House, saying the gold decorations ‘looked like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.’
Trump speaks during a meeting with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office in 2025
The jibe appeared to provoke Trump, with the president laying into Obama in a furious rant at his Mississippi rally on Monday.
Trump accused Obama of leaving the White House ‘filthy, dirty and broken’, and said he was ‘surprised’ by the condition that Obama allowed it to fall into.
He said he told the press to tell Obama that ‘the White House is a symbol of America and when it’s filthy, dirty and broken, when the windows are cracked, when the exterior monuments on the outside are good on one side and cracked on the other side, people notice that.’
‘This place is in bad shape, it really is. I made up for lost time because I did a job and it’s in better shape than it was built and more beautiful,’ Trump said.
He also dismissed the notion that he ‘spends all his time’ on renovations, saying he ‘literally’ does it while walking home from the Oval Office.
‘I’d walk, I’d look up, I’d say, “boy that wall is really bad, let’s go, we gotta’ fix it, fellas.” And we have really talented people, they have a great touch.’
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President Barack Obama, right, meets with then President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office in 2016
Trump similarly lashed out at Obama, long an inspiration for Trump’s rise to political power, when speaking to the press earlier Monday at Joint Base Andrews.
‘For you to say it’s a Cheesecake Factory, that just shows why you were a lousy president,’ Trump unloaded on his predecessor while addressing the press at Joint Base Andrews.
‘He’s not smart at all because of the way he ran the country. Only a stupid person would run the country like that,’ Trump said.
‘We have to explain that to Obama because he doesn’t understand it because he’s not a smart guy,’ the president continued, saying Obama did not notice ‘dirt and filth’ that had not been cleaned and walls that had not ‘been cleaned for years.’
‘Guys like Obama don’t see it… He doesn’t see broken ornaments on a building,’ Trump added, defending his updates to the White House.