President Donald Trump was unfazed by at least ten protesters who tried to disrupt his speech in South Carolina on Wednesday night, where one rallygoer appeared to throw a punch at an agitator.
The president was disrupted nine times through the first twenty minutes of his speech, six of which came in the first eight or so minutes, per the White House press pool.
The president, who has experience dealing with protesters at rallies dating back to his first presidential run in 2015, was undeterred by the disruptors — either trolling them or, in some cases, dismissing them while they were removed from the T. Ed Garrison Livestock Arena at Clemson University.
“Paid protesters. It’s unbelievable, unbelievable. They’ll do whatever they can to win. They get $250 for that, and they screw up their lives,” Trump said during the first interruption.
“And they go home, and mom slaps him around… ‘I voted for that man. Don’t you ever do that again, son. I still love you, Son.’ Hard to believe, isn’t it?” he added.
During the third instance, the president quipped that he is always interrupted at his “punchline.”
“I don’t mind when they do that, but it’s always right at my punchline. You see it? I’ve had three punchlines… they time them beautifully. They time them beautifully. These people are serious losers,” he said.
During another disruption later in the rally, a rallygoer appeared to throw a punch at a protester.
“That was unbelievable. Is everybody okay? Who’s the guy that threw that punch? Who threw that punch?” Trump said.
“You reminded me of Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield,” Trump told the rallygoer.
Holyfield was on hand and was notably the latest star to join Trump on the trail in the lead-up to the midterm elections.
From Trump’s perspective, the protester “screeched” and was then punched.
“He started, you know, that screech, whatever the hell they do, whatever they practice, and as he’s in the process of the screech, he got whacked,” Trump said.
