Donald Trump oddly gushed about Sen. Jon Husted’s attractiveness and athleticism during a rally in Ohio — all to boost Republican candidates ahead of the midterms.

The president said Ohioans had to vote for Husted to keep his seat amid a challenge from Sherrod Brown, a former Democratic senator from Ohio. Jon Gruden, a former Super Bowl-winning coach, introduced the president at Monday’s rally and mentioned to Trump that he and the senator played ball together in college.

“I’m standing over here, and I don’t do this with men very often. I started examining [Husted’s] body because I didn’t know he was a great athlete, and I looked, and I watched up and down,” Trump told his supporters Monday night in Youngstown with Husted in the crowd. “I looked at his a**, and I looked at the whole, and then I looked at his hands. Look at his hands. He’s got these like claws.”

Husted was an All-American defensive back at the University of Dayton, where he got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Trump said that Gruden told him about Husted’s athletic prowess. Gruden was on the Dayton Flyers with Husted in 1985.

“I said, ‘John, what are you doing here?’ I thought he was going to say, ‘I’m here for you, sir. I have such respect for you.’ But he didn’t say that. He said, ‘I’m here for my teammate.’ I said, ‘Who’s your teammate?’ He said, ‘It’s John Husted,’” Trump told the crowd.

The president recalled asking Gruden if Husted was “any good,” to which Gruden replied, “He was the best player on the team.”

Later in his speech, Trump baselessly claimed Brown “wants to have men playing in women’s sports” and then went on a rant about female kickers in football.

“John Gruden is a great coach on a lot of championship teams. John, did you ever have a woman that you were desperate to have on one of your championship teams?” Trump said. “How about every once in a while I’ll see a kicker — they have a kicker who’s a female because they put them on.”

Trump then suggested Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham be placed on a men’s team.

“Let’s put her on. I like Sophie. Yeah, you’d have a lot of men wanting to go and watch her. She’s beautiful. You’re not allowed to say that anymore. However, as a politician, please, please let me take it back,” the president said.

Trump’s speech was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, which the president insulted with “your mom” and fat jokes, as he did at a recent Texas rally.

During the first disturbance, Trump said there were paid protesters in the crowd.

“They get paid by the lefties in order to destroy our country. They’re scum, but he’s going back home to mom…He’s got to go on a diet. He’s a fat guy,” Trump said. “What he doesn’t know is that his mother and father voted for me.”

Later on, another protester with a Palestinian flag interrupted Trump’s speech, reminiscent of a protester waving a Mexican and a Palestinian flag during Vice President JD Vance’s speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas last month.

In a recent CNN poll conducted by research firm SSRS, Brown — who served in the Senate from 2007 to 2025 — led Husted — a former lieutenant governor who was appointed to fill Vance’s vacated Senate seat — by six points among likely Ohio voters, 49 to 43 percent.

Trump, who’s seen record-low approval ratings, has been campaigning in red states as if he were on the ballot; in fact, he’s told his supporters to vote for Republicans whom he’s endorsed as if he were on the ballot. Meanwhile, Democrats in Texas, Alaska, Iowa and Kansas are gaining ground in states that Republicans typically win easily, according to recent New York Times/Siena University polls.

Husted later joined Trump on stage Monday night, telling the crowd, “Mr. President, you’ve helped bring this region back and this state to prominence. And I tell you what, we are going to do everything that we can to win on November 3, and you’re going to bring it home with us, aren’t you?”

“Wow, he’s really changed since you all learned how great an athlete he was,” Trump said following Husted’s remarks. “I just hit him on the back, and I hurt my hand a little bit. He’s like a piece of steel.”

Later on, influencer and boxer Jake Paul went on stage and spoke out against the protesters.

“I get confused by the left, the protesters. Do they not have jobs? That’s all they do — just carry signs around while we’re doing the work,” the Ohio native said. “We have to protect this state because Washington doesn’t belong to celebrities like me. It doesn’t belong to the politicians. It belongs to you guys and us, the American people.”