Trump in Alabama: “It all started here” — rally for his earliest supporters ahead of the midterm elections

MOBILE, Alabama – President Donald Trump held a campaign rally on Friday evening in Mobile, Alabama, telling thousands of supporters that the decision to come to the deeply Republican state was “a sign of respect” for the voters who stood by him from the very beginning of his political career.

“I’m here to say hello to you, I love you and really as a sign of respect,” Trump said during his speech at the Mitchell Center, the arena of the University of South Alabama, as the New York Post reports. “You have to show respect to the people who have loved you from the beginning,” he added.

Trump recalled that Mobile was the site of his first big rally more than a decade ago. “Somehow it all started here,” the president said, recounting that his 2016 campaign team had initially booked “a small hotel” in Mobile for him to speak, but the huge demand for tickets forced it to rent a football stadium. The 21 August 2015 event drew about 30,000 supporters. “We filled the stadium, and the rest is history,” he said.

Unlike Thursday’s stop in Texas, where he endorsed Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton because “we have to win that race”, Trump presented Alabama as a thank-you visit. He expressed confidence that the candidacies he has endorsed in the state will triumph in the November elections, including Senator Tommy Tuberville for governor and Congressman Barry Moore for the Senate, as well as Rhett Marques and Jerry Carl for the House of Representatives. “All of these guys are going to win, but you have to go out and vote,” he said, urging voters to “act like I’m on the ballot”.

The president also revealed that he will return to Alabama on 10 October to attend the American football game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs. He also boasted of “$3 billion in Trump administration funding” for the new I-10 corridor bridge, joking that if Tuberville wins the governorship, “maybe they’ll name the bridge after me — and I’ll be happy”.

The Mobile rally comes a month before the 3 November midterm elections and is part of a series of 32 campaign stops by the president in the final weeks of the race, at a time when polls show tight contests in several key states, including Ohio, where Trump travels today.

President Donald Trump at a rally in 2026. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA)