A right-wing news host was left stunned after Donald Trump thirsted over a male Republican senator at a wild campaign rally.
Newsmax host Rob Schmitt was covering a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, at which the 80-year-old president appeared to be obsessed with Sen. Jon Husted’s physique.
Trump was at the rally supporting Husted, who trails his Democratic challenger, Sherrod Brown, by 6 points, according to a CNN poll.
Husted had already been endorsed by former NFL coach Jon Gruden, the senator’s old teammate at the University of Dayton who introduced Trump at the rally.
Trump told the sparsely attended rally he’d only just learned about Husted’s days as a college footballer.
“And I don’t do this with men very often. I started examining his body because I didn’t know he was a great athlete,” Trump said. “And I looked and I watched up and down and I looked at his a-- … then I looked at his hands. Look at his hands. He’s got, like, claws.”
Later, Trump had Husted stand up and picked up where he left off.
“Look at that jawline, I’m telling you,” he said. “I never saw that, I never studied him, and now I study him.”
Back in the studio, Schmitt pinned the remarks on the wrong man.
“We’ll never know what the president’s talking about there, talking about Jon Gruden, in a way, I would never [have] expected,” he said.
Gruden wasn’t the one under inspection.
Husted, 59, was an All-American cornerback at Dayton who went on to a career in Ohio politics. He was tapped in January 2025 to replace JD Vance when Vance became vice president but is struggling to retain the seat.
The White House and Husted’s campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
