President Donald Trump turned a routine question about his shrinking campaign schedule into one of the sharpest confrontations of the midterm season on Thursday, telling a Reuters reporter he was "disgusting" for asking whether he was tired of travelling, hours before he flies to Florida for what is now his final in-person rally of the campaign. The Trump reporter clash at Joint Base Andrews capped a day in which his party cancelled his last two weekend rallies and replaced them with a blitz of telephone rallies across at least 19 states.

Key Points

• Trump told Reuters reporter Jacob Bogage "You are disgusting" after being asked if cancelling a Kansas rally meant he was "sick of travelling".
• The Republican National Committee cancelled in-person rallies in Salina, Kansas, on Saturday and Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday, citing a "strong position" in both states.
• MAGA Inc will instead run tele-rallies with Trump in at least 19 states before Tuesday's November 3 midterms.
• Trump still travels to Daytona Beach, Florida, on Friday night, speaking at the Ocean Center at 7 p.m. before heading to Palm Beach.
• Republicans hold the Senate 53-47 and the House 218-217 in practical terms, and Democrats need a net gain of four Senate seats to take control.

What Happened

The exchange took place on Thursday evening as Trump returned to Washington after a campaign rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina, for Darline Graham, the Republican Senate nominee and sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. Asked why he had dropped plans to attend a Saturday rally supporting Republican Senator Roger Marshall in Kansas, Trump said he did not "feel like I have to go to Kansas" because Marshall was "doing very well".

When the reporter, identified as Reuters White House reporter Jacob Bogage, pressed him on whether the change suggested he was growing tired of travelling, Trump erupted. "You're sick to ask that question. You are sick," he said. "I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape, you look like hell." He added that the reporter had been following him for two weeks, and, in a longer version of the exchange, said: "Look at this guy. He's way out of shape. Look at how badly he comes to me."

Trump, 80, is the oldest elected president in American history, and the question touched on the one vulnerability his campaign has been most eager to dismiss: stamina. He has kept up a near-daily rally schedule through October, often speaking for more than an hour at a time. Sounding hoarse in Mississippi on Monday, he told a crowd: "God didn't make your vocal cords to do a rally every day."

Later on Thursday, the Republican National Committee confirmed the second cancellation. "With Republicans in a strong position in Kansas and Iowa, previously planned in-person rallies in those states will no longer take place as scheduled," the RNC said in a statement. The Kansas event had been set for Salina on Saturday, and the Iowa event for the Five Flags Event Center in Dubuque on Sunday.

Background/Context

Since October 1, Trump has hosted 25 rallies in 19 states, often speaking for his party in rural areas of Republican-friendly states, and he has repeatedly urged Republican voters to "pretend I'm on the ballot" to maximise turnout despite his poor approval ratings. The Kansas rally was the second Trump rally in the state to be scrapped: an earlier Salina event was already replaced with tele-town halls, a switch US News Pulse reported earlier in the week.

The Kansas race itself explains part of the tension. Marshall, a fellow Republican, is in an unexpectedly competitive race with Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor. A CNN poll released on Thursday showed Hamilton leading Marshall by four percentage points, with 49 percent support against the incumbent's 45 percent. Kansas is traditionally a Republican stronghold — Trump carried it by 16 points in 2024 — and no Democrat has won a Senate seat there since 1932. Yet forecasters have moved the race to a toss-up, and betting markets that once gave Marshall an 83 percent chance in early September had him closer to a coin flip by late October.

Iowa, too, has several competitive congressional races, and the tele-rally there is set to support Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn and other Iowa Republicans, according to the announcement for the Dubuque event. Trump has already visited both states this month, holding rallies in Sioux City, Iowa, on October 22, and in Park City, Kansas, on October 19, even as both Marshall and Hinson have at times sought to distance themselves from the president.

The schedule change is also a response to the calendar. With five days left before polls close, the RNC said tele-rallies "can reach more voters in the limited time left". RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said: "Voters across the country want to hear from President Trump before Election Day, and this 72-hour sprint will be a huge boost in the closing days."

Trump Reporter Clash at Joint Base Andrews

The Trump reporter clash matters because it is not the first time this campaign has turned on the press. Earlier this week, CNN, MS NOW and Politico asked a federal court to declare Trump's White House press ban unlawful and grant permanent injunctive relief, alleging continued retaliatory pool exclusions. Trump has long treated hostile questions as a campaign prop, and Thursday's exchange followed that pattern: a question about stamina became an attack on the questioner's fitness, delivered on camera, in front of his motorcade, on his way back to the White House.

What made this exchange different was its timing. It came on the same day his party was publicly scaling back the physical campaign, and it handed Democrats a ready-made clip for the final weekend. Trump insisted he felt "perfect", and his allies argue the tele-rally plan proves the point: a president who can address voters in 19 states in three days is not winding down, they say, but switching to a more efficient format. Critics argue the opposite — that the cancellations, coming after weeks of hoarse, marathon speeches, speak for themselves.

Trump himself framed the Kansas decision as confidence, not retreat. "I'm not going to Kansas because he's doing very well. I'm going to do a telerally. Tomorrow I'm doing Florida," he said. He repeated the prediction that has anchored his closing message: "We are going to have a strong Tuesday night."

Reactions/Quotes

The RNC's statement was the official word on the cancellations, and Gruters' "72-hour sprint" line was its slogan. MAGA Inc, the campaign funding group aligned with Trump, said it would host the telephone rallies in at least 19 states, including Kansas and Iowa, before Election Day. Its list runs through Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia — a map that covers the Senate battlegrounds and the competitive House districts in one sweep.

Democrats, for their part, have seized on the affordability argument that has shadowed the closing days. The president's return to Palm Beach follows a week of daily stump speeches and coincides with this weekend's annual Halloween bash at Mar-a-Lago, the start of Palm Beach's social season. The Palm Beach Post noted that a gallon of regular gasoline in his adopted home county cost $4.12 on October 29, more than a dollar more than a year earlier in the aftermath of the war in Iran — a figure Democrats are using to argue that the campaign's closing message does not match voters' bills.

Trump, speaking to reporters earlier on Thursday before boarding Air Force One for South Carolina, pointed instead to the economy's headline number. GDP "came out at a much higher number than any projections, 3.4, which was almost double some projections," he said, referring to the third-quarter growth figure released on Thursday morning. Asked about young voters and his rallies, he said: "I'm doing a rally now in South Carolina and it's packed… 99 per cent favorable."

Why It Matters

Tuesday's midterms will determine whether Republicans retain narrow control of the US Senate and House of Representatives, and with it, Trump's legislative agenda for the final two years of his second term. Republicans currently hold 53 of the 100 Senate seats, while Democrats need to gain four seats to take control. In the House, the Republican majority is similarly narrow, and a handful of districts in states on the tele-rally list — Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia — could decide it.

The clash also matters for what it reveals about the campaign's final theory of the race. Trump has spent October as the central figure of the Republican campaign, and his rallies have been the party's main turnout machine. Replacing the last in-person events with phone calls is a gamble: tele-rallies can reach more voters, but they cannot recreate the images of packed arenas that have defined his campaigning for a decade. If turnout in Kansas and Iowa holds, the RNC will call the switch a masterstroke. If Marshall's race tightens further, Democrats will call it an abandonment.

There is a narrower, human stakes question too. The exchange with Bogage was the latest in a series of personal attacks on reporters covering the campaign, and it came in a week when news organisations were already in court over access to the president. How the press covers the final days — and whether it can get close enough to ask the stamina question again — is itself part of the story of this election's endgame.

What Happens Next

Friday is the pivot. The White House schedule shows Trump taking part in a tele-rally aboard Air Force One at 5 p.m. before delivering remarks at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, at 7 p.m., and then flying to Palm Beach. The Daytona event, at 101 N. Atlantic Avenue, is expected to draw up to 9,000 people, with doors opening at 3:30 p.m. and tight security, including metal-detector screening and bag checks. It is Trump's first Daytona rally since August 3, 2016, when he campaigned there as a presidential candidate, and, barring another schedule change, it will be his final in-person midterm speech.

After Florida, the campaign becomes a phone campaign. The tele-rallies run through the weekend, with early voting ending on Saturday, October 31, in Florida and in many other states. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time in Florida. The results in Kansas and Iowa — and in the Senate races in Michigan, Texas, Alaska and elsewhere on the tele-rally map — will be the first verdict on whether the phone strategy worked.

Watch, too, for the schedule on Monday, the final day of the campaign, which the White House had not published as of Thursday night. Trump has said he expects "a strong Tuesday night". Whether he adds another in-person stop, or closes the campaign from a telephone, will be the last signal of how confident his team really is.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Trump say to the reporter?

After Reuters reporter Jacob Bogage asked whether cancelling the Kansas rally meant Trump was "sick of travelling", Trump replied: "You're sick to ask that question. You are sick," and added: "I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape, you look like hell."

Which rallies were cancelled?

The in-person rallies in Salina, Kansas, on Saturday, October 31, and in Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday, November 1. Both were replaced with tele-rallies, and the RNC said Republicans are in a "strong position" in both states.

What is a tele-rally?

A telephone rally in which the president addresses voters by phone, often with thousands of supporters listening in. MAGA Inc said it would host tele-rallies in at least 19 states before Election Day, including Kansas, Iowa, Michigan, Alaska and Texas.

When is Trump's Daytona Beach rally?

Friday, October 30, 2026, at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. and Trump is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m., before flying to Palm Beach.

When are the midterm elections?

Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Voters will decide control of the Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats, and the House of Representatives, along with governors' races and state contests across the country.

Related coverage on US News Pulse: Trump's Kansas rally cancelled as president swaps Salina trip for tele-town halls, Michigan Senate race becomes faith fight as Trump, Moreno target El-Sayed, and DOJ Alaska subpoenas target Democrats in Senate race days before midterms.