President Trump delivers his remarks at his rally at the Heartland Credit Union Arena in Park City, Kansas, on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026.
Dominick Williams
dowilliams@kcstar.com
President Donald Trump is speaking Monday in Park City, Kansas, in support of the Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, who faces a tough reelection campaign against Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton.
The Star is fact-checking some of Trump’s claims during the rally.
Live updates:
Follow updates from Kansas City Star journalists fact-check President Trump’s claims during a visit to Wichita.
No illegal immigrants entering the country
Trump told the crowd that no undocumented immigrants have been “admitted” into the United States during his second term.
“We inherited the worst border in American history, and we turned it into the strongest and most secure border in the history of our country. And in the past 17 months, zero, it’s not even believable,” Trump said. “Zero illegal immigrants have been admitted into the United States.”
Verdict: Needs context
During both of Trump’s terms, his administration ended a practice known as “catch and release,” under which Border Patrol agents apprehended people crossing the border and released them into the country.
The number of people attempting to enter the United States illegally has dropped sharply during Trump’s second term. U.S. Border Patrol apprehended about 86,000 migrants attempting to cross the border in Trump’s first year, compared to 956,000 during Biden’s last year in office.
$22 trillion in investment?
Trump said several times that he helped bring in more than $22 trillion in foreign investment.
“Sleepy Joe Biden did half a trillion dollars of investment in four years. We’re doing $22 trillion in 16 months,” Trump said.
Verdict: False.
The White House’s official tracker lists about $11.3 trillion in investments. That figure includes broad investment announcements, nonbinding trade goals and commitments secured during the Biden administration.
Bloomberg Economics estimates that credible investment commitments are closer to $7 trillion.
Is there a car plant boom?
Trump said the auto manufacturing industry is booming under his leadership.
Verdict: False.
“We have more car plants being built right now in the United States than any other time in history,” Trump said. “We went through a period of 48 years, where not one car plant, they were all closing, not one car plant was built. We have more being built.”
Auto manufacturing in the United States is not at record levels. The country has built two dozen major new vehicle assembly plants over the past four decades.
Was Roger Marshall required to sue for unpaid medical debt?
Marshall faced scrutiny after a New York Times investigation found he pursued hundreds of former patients over unpaid medical bills.
The investigation found that Marshall sued more than 700 patients, leading to at least 81 arrests after they missed court dates. Marshall charged an annual interest rate of 18% on unpaid bills and in some cases, garnished patients’ wages and bank accounts, The Times reported.
Trump said during the rally that Marshall “got a bum rap” because he was required by law to sue the former patients for unpaid medical debt.
“He was mandated by law to request, strongly, money owed from patients,” Trump said during the rally. “You’re not allowed not to do it. You have to, by law, go after those people.”
Verdict: False.
No federal or state law requires doctors to sue patients over unpaid medical debt. The Hill also reports that there is no law requiring debt collectors to ask judges for arrest warrants for defendants who fail to appear in court.
Did Hamilton ‘shield a child sexual predator?’
Trump claimed that Hamilton personally protected a sexual predator who abused children at a summer camp.
“Adam Hamilton shielded a child sexual predator at his church. You’ve been reading about it. And what’s almost as bad is he just admitted last night that he never contacted law enforcement when it was discovered. Instead, he let him come back as a camp counselor and let him stay as a camp counselor, knowing he was a child predator.”
Verdict: Needs context.
In November 2005, church volunteer Scott Preston Moore entered sleeping quarters at night and inappropriately touched two teenage boys. The boys reported the experience to camp counselors, who were dismissive of their complaints according to court records reviewed by The Star.
The court documents do not name Hamilton as directly involved in the report. The church conducted an internal investigation about the abuse in 2005, but was “unable to conclusively identify the perpetrator,” according to a court filing.
The church did not report the incident to law enforcement or social services in 2005. Moore returned as a camp counselor the next year and was accused of entering campers’ rooms at night, though the court documents do not indicate he engaged in any sexual abuse in 2006.
After the allegations, church officials alerted the Linn County Sheriff’s Office to the 2006 incident and the allegations from the previous year. Linn County prosecutors declined to file criminal charges, but the church barred Moore from working with children, youth and vulnerable adults.
Moore was convicted in 2013 of inappropriately touching a 16-year-old boy. In an interview with CNN, Hamilton said the church should have called the police immediately.
Hamilton urges repenting for eating beef
Trump told the crowd that Hamilton thinks Kansans should “repent for eating beef because you’re causing global warming.”
Verdict: Needs context.
Hamilton noted that “cattle end up producing more carbon dioxide” in a 2020 sermon focused largely on climate change. Hamilton urged his parishioners to find ways to minimize their carbon footprint.
“You’ve got to do everything you can to reduce your own usage of fossil fuels, and maybe changing your diet so that the things that you eat are requiring less production that creates methane and carbon dioxide and everything else,” Hamilton said during the sermon.
Opponents have seized on the issue to portray Hamilton as anti-beef. In a campaign video, Hamilton grilled and ate a steak while criticizing Marshall’s record.
Hamilton supports ‘flooding’ state with refugees
Trump said Hamilton supports flooding the state with dangerous refugees.
“He supports flooding Kansas with unvetted refugees who go around killing people, literally for no reason,” Trump said.
Verdict: False.
Adam Hamilton has said he does not support open borders and that “dangerous criminals don’t belong here.”
Hamilton he supports secure borders, Immigration and Customs Enforcement targeting serious criminals, year-round agricultural visas and a pathway to citizenship for agricultural workers.
2020 election results
Trump said the 2020 election and a local mayoral race in Los Angeles were rigged.
“We did great, and it was historic, and then we did it a second time and we won by even more. We won. We had a great second run,” Trump said. “We won by millions of votes. They rigged the election.”
Verdict: False.
There’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud or election tampering in the 2020 election or the 2026 Los Angeles mayoral election.
France riots
Trump cast riots in France as being conducted by “migrants, jihadists and communists.”
“Just look at what’s happening in France, a once-great nation that is being conquered, looted and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists and communists who hate Christianity and they hate, frankly, the Western civilization itself,” Trump said.
“And as we’re seeing in Europe, globalist left-wing protestors have treasonously imported millions and millions of third-world migrants that are totally incompatible with the West and they are incompatible with Western values. They despise everything about France and they’re destroying their country.”
Verdict: False.
Protests in France began weeks ago over teacher shortages and poor condition of French classrooms. They have since spiraled to larger unrest over cost of living, and France’s labor unions have backed the movement.
Fishermen, police officers, farmers, construction workers, medical workers and university staff have participated in the protest.
This story was originally published October 19, 2026 at 7:27 PM.
The Kansas City Star
Jack Harvel is the Missouri Politics Insider for The Kansas City Star, where he covers how state politics and government impact people in Kansas City. Before joining the star, he covered state politics in Kansas and reported on communities in Colorado and Oregon. He was born in Kansas City, raised in Lee’s Summit and graduated from Mizzou in 2019.