The Trump Port Huron rally closed Sunday evening with the president dancing off stage to "YMCA" after a one-hour-and-45-minute speech — and with rapper Nicki Minaj, flown in on Air Force One, telling about 3,000 people inside McMorran Place Arena that she was "so honored to be working with this president." Nine days before the November 3 midterms, the first visit by a sitting president to Port Huron and St. Clair County was built around one race above all others: Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat, where Republican Mike Rogers is trying to erase a small polling deficit against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.
A celebrity landing, then a Senate pitch
Minaj's appearance was teased hours before Trump took the stage shortly before 3:30 p.m. Eastern. The Washington Examiner reported she would attend, the Trump War Room account shared the story, and Minaj herself posted video from the plane speaking about the president. She traveled with Trump on Air Force One to Selfridge Air National Guard Base, and White House communications director Steven Cheung joked in a post from the plane that "we may have found the new White House Press Secretary" — a job that has been open since Katie Zacharia's short stint ended earlier this month.
Trump brought her to the stage at 5:10 p.m. "We love Trump," Minaj chanted to the crowd, according to the Port Huron Times Herald's live account. "I am so honored to be working with this president, he represents resilience, you know," she said, adding that the county is at a turning point and Michigan needs to lead in the movement. Earlier, Trump had drawn laughter — and a wave of online reaction — with a crude compliment about Minaj while riffing on Ohio Senator Jon Husted's athletic build, a detour he has repeated at rallies this month. "I hope Nicki wasn't insulted, but we love Nicki. She's been with us for a long time," he said, according to accounts of the remarks. Minaj, who declared herself Trump's "No. 1 fan" at a Washington event in January, stood and waved.
The celebrity moment served a conventional purpose: turnout. Trump called Rogers and Republican gubernatorial nominee John James back to the stage at 5:01 p.m., endorsed Representatives Lisa McClain, Anthony Forlini and Doug Lloyd by name, and closed shortly after 5:15 p.m. with the pitch he has made across a long run of October rallies: "Lets get out and do what we do best and win." Rogers told the crowd, "Faith, family, freedom, our finances, lets get it done for Michigan, our future," and James put the ask bluntly: "People say, 'Hey John, you better win!' I say, 'You better go vote!'"
The attacks, and the response
Trump spent much of the speech attacking El-Sayed, claiming without evidence — in the Detroit Free Press's characterization — that the Democratic nominee is a "jihadist" and a "Muslim Brotherhood member" who wants to bring Sharia law to America. He had posted a version of the same claim on Truth Social about 1:30 p.m., before speaking. El-Sayed, a former Wayne County and Detroit public health director who was born in the United States, has said he "absolutely" disavows the Muslim Brotherhood. His campaign answered the rally in a statement: "While they lie and resort to desperate, bad faith attacks, Abdul remains laser-focused on his plans to bring down costs and stand up to the chaos and corruption in Washington." Trump also brought David Beamer to the stage — the father of Todd Beamer, the Flint native killed on Flight 93 on September 11, 2001 — who endorsed Rogers and ended with his son's famous words: "One. Two. Three. Let's roll!"
Beyond the Senate race, Trump defended the ongoing war with Iran, calling higher gas prices "a small price to pay" for ensuring Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon, repeated his pledge to send $5,000 checks to all American adults if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate, voiced his displeasure with Norway over the Nobel Peace Prize, and told the border-city crowd he expects the trade and tariff fight with Canada to end favorably for the United States: "Canada has been ripping off the U.S. for years. They're willing to give us anything at this point." He claimed 20,000 more people had wanted to get in; the Free Press estimated the crowd inside the hockey arena at about 3,000, compared with about 4,000 at former President Barack Obama's Democratic rally at Detroit's Cass Technical High School a day earlier.
Why this matters
Michigan's Senate seat — open because Democrat Gary Peters is retiring — is one of a handful that will decide whether Republicans keep their 53–47 Senate majority. The RealClearPolitics average early Sunday had Rogers trailing El-Sayed by about 1.9 percentage points, inside the margin of error, in what has become the most expensive Senate race in Michigan history. That arithmetic explains the guest list. A president with historically low approval ratings, presiding over high gas prices and an unpopular war, is a complicated asset: both Rogers and James have kept a measure of distance — Rogers aired an ad in early October calling for an immediate end to the tariff war with Canada and declined on "Meet the Press" Sunday morning to answer directly whether he is a "MAGA Republican," while James has said he will put Michigan's interests ahead of the White House. Yet both men stood on Trump's stage on Sunday, because in a race this close the deciding variable is not persuasion but turnout — and nobody in Republican politics turns out the base like Trump, now with a pop star beside him aimed squarely at younger voters who rarely attend midterm rallies.
The setting carried its own message. Port Huron is not a swing suburb; Trump won St. Clair County with about two-thirds of the vote in 2024. But it sits across the Blue Water Bridge from Sarnia, Ontario, and it is living the Canada fight Trump started: passenger crossings at the bridge dropped 21 percent in 2025 from a year earlier, according to Bridge and Tunnel Operators Association data. Mayor Anita Ashford welcomed the visit while saying strained relations are hurting local restaurants, bars and shops that depend on Canadian customers; Sarnia's mayor, Mike Bradley, said residents "feel disrespected" and that the friendship could take "a generation" to restore. County Commissioner Kerry Ange countered that she has seen no acrimony and little drop in foot traffic, and credited Trump with reviving local manufacturing, including a reopened paper mill. Holding the rally there was a bet that the tariff argument still wins more votes in Michigan than it costs — a bet Rogers's own Canada ad suggests his campaign is not entirely sure about.
How the closing stretch looks
Sunday's rally landed in the middle of a national-figure pileup in Michigan. Obama campaigned for Democrats, including El-Sayed and gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson, in Detroit on Saturday, October 24 — the same day statewide early voting opened, with close to one million Michigan ballots already cast, according to the Michigan Bureau of Elections. Senator Bernie Sanders was scheduled to appear with El-Sayed in Grand Rapids on Sunday evening, and Vice President JD Vance is due in Howell on Tuesday, October 27. Outside McMorran, the day was mostly peaceful: police broke up a brief physical altercation between rally supporters and protesters downtown hours before Trump spoke, and one woman shouting opposition was escorted out shortly after he began.
Read our earlier Michigan coverage: Trump and Rogers press their case against El-Sayed in the Michigan debate; the checks pledge in context: Trump's $5,000-checks pledge and the Obamacare refund fight; and the rally trail: Trump's Fort Myers rally, where he said the U.S. will "take care of Cuba".
What happens next
Both campaigns now enter the final nine days with the race effectively tied and early voting under way. The questions to watch are measurable: whether the RCP average moves after a weekend in which both parties put their biggest names in the state; whether celebrity turnout politics — Minaj for Trump, Obama for the Democrats — shows up in early-vote totals from Wayne County and the blue-collar counties around Port Huron; and whether Rogers continues to split the difference on tariffs and the war, or closes fully behind the president who just headlined for him. If the Senate majority runs through Michigan, as both parties' travel schedules say it does, Sunday's spectacle in a border hockey arena may be remembered as the moment the race stopped being about policy at all — and became, entirely, about who shows up.
Sources
- Port Huron Times Herald, Oct 25 2026, live coverage (Liz Shepard, Andy Jeffrey, Johnathan Hogan): Trump took the stage shortly before 3:30 p.m. ET, closed shortly after 5:15 p.m.; Minaj brought to the stage at 5:10 p.m. ("We love Trump"; "I am so honored to be working with this president"); Rogers and James recalled to the stage at 5:01 p.m.; endorsements of McClain, Forlini and Lloyd; Trump's 1:30 p.m. Truth Social post; El-Sayed "absolutely" disavows the Muslim Brotherhood; David Beamer appearance; first sitting president to visit Port Huron and St. Clair County. https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/politics/2026/10/25/donald-trump-in-port-huron-michigan-latest-updates--live/92419410007/
- Detroit Free Press, Oct 25 2026: "Trump fires up Republicans in Port Huron rally amid midterm push" — crowd about 3,000 inside McMorran (Obama about 4,000 in Detroit Oct 24); speech one hour 45 minutes; attacks on El-Sayed characterized as without evidence; El-Sayed campaign statement; Iran-war defense ("a small price to pay"); $5,000 checks conditional on Republicans holding House and Senate; Canada remarks; Blue Water Bridge crossings down 21% in 2025 (Bridge and Tunnel Operators Association); Ashford, Bradley and Ange interviews; Rogers's Canada-tariff ad and "Meet the Press" answer; close to one million Michigan ballots cast before early voting opened Oct 24. https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/10/25/trump-rally-port-huron-michigan-midterms/92376457007/
- Washington Examiner, Oct 25 2026: rally in support of Mike Rogers and down-ballot Republicans; Minaj appearance reported; RealClearPolitics average Rogers trailing El-Sayed by 1.9 points; John James trailing Jocelyn Benson by just over 6 points; Republicans' 53–47 Senate majority at stake. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4779028/watch-live-trump-rallies-for-mike-rogers-in-michigan/
- New York Post, Oct 25 2026: Minaj disembarked Air Force One with Trump at Selfridge Air National Guard Base; Steven Cheung's "next White House Press Secretary" post; Minaj's Air Force One posts on X; press-secretary vacancy since Katie Zacharia's resignation. https://nypost.com/2026/10/25/us-news/gucci-clad-nicki-minaj-joins-trump-in-michigan/
- Particle News summary of pre-rally reporting, Oct 25 2026: Minaj backing Rogers; her January "No. 1 fan" declaration and Trump Accounts advocacy; RCP gap ~1.9 points. https://particle.news/story/nicki-minaj-to-join-trump-at-port-huron-rally-backing-mike-rogers