{"id":810544,"date":"2026-10-22T16:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T16:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/810544\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T16:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T16:50:17","slug":"trump-praises-supporter-who-punched-heckler-at-rally-and-compares-him-to-evander-holyfield-that-was-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/810544\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump praises supporter who punched heckler at rally and compares him to Evander Holyfield: \u2018That was great\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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President Donald Trump<\/a> lavished praise on one of his supporters who punched a protester at his latest rally Wednesday night, comparing the assailant to former boxing champion Evander Holyfield<\/a>, a guest speaker at the same event.<\/p>\n

Trump was appearing at the T Ed Garrison Arena in Pendleton, South Carolina<\/a>, hoping to fire up his base and encourage Republican turnout<\/a> at next month\u2019s midterms<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The president was interrupted by hecklers at several stages during his address but the most significant came when his remarks turned to immigration.<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Donald Trump welcomed retired boxer Evander Holyfield on stage to speak on his behalf in South Carolina Wednesday (AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardest thing we have to do is nab these career criminals and get them the hell out of here\u2026\u201d Trump was saying<\/a>, at which point the TV cameras covering his speech swung towards the crowd in response to a sudden uproar. <\/p>\n

The camera picked out an older man in a red cap and spectacles holding his hands up and stepping back as police rushed into his row. Officers retrieved the protester he had seemingly just struck and led him out of the rally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow, thank you!\u201d the president commented. \u201cThat was great. Wow. Man, I love \u2013 I watched that. That was unbelievable. Is everybody OK? Who\u2019s the guy that threw that punch? Who threw that punch? Man!\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cI saw it \u2013 I\u2019m looking right in that area and this lunatic\u2026 Actually, I\u2019m not supposed to talk about looks. He\u2019s a very unattractive looking guy. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, once I turned political I had to say, \u2018Looks don\u2019t matter.\u2019 I could see the most beautiful woman and I don\u2019t notice it. But that guy was a really unattractive guy.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice came to the aid of the protester struck during the melee and led him out of the venue for his own safety as Trump providing a gloating commentary from the stage (Acyn\/X)<\/p>\n

\u201cBut who\u2019s the guy that threw the punch? You are? You reminded me of Evander \u2018The Real Deal\u2019 Holyfield. No, the guy stood up, and he just let that little \u2013 and he got whacked! Man!\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump concluded: \u201cThey don\u2019t realize it\u2019s really dangerous to do that. You gotta give \u2019em credit. It takes courage to do that at a Trump rally. He got whacked!<\/p>\n

\u201cHe started that, you know, screech. Whatever the hell they do\u2026 and as he\u2019s in the process of the screech, he got whacked! Evander, he wants your autograph, that man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HolyfieldHolyfield and pro-golfer Jacob Bridgeman were both in the crowd for Trump\u2019s address (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Earlier interruptions to his speech had seen the president dismiss his hecklers as \u201cpaid protesters,\u201d without evidence, and claiming they \u201cgo home and mom slaps them around,\u201d drawing scornful laughter from his audience.<\/p>\n

In another instance, he responded by saying: \u201cWhat was that noise I just heard? You know, you like just to power through that stuff, but that was a loud, horrible, disgusting sound. I didn\u2019t know what was wrong with that person.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it happened for a third time, as he discussed Sen. Darline Graham, whose candidacy he was there to champion<\/a>, Trump complained: \u201cIt\u2019s always right at my punchline! They time \u2019em beautifully. These people are serious losers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,141,17341,101,10907,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-810544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-donald-trump","tag-evander-holyfield","tag-sports","tag-trump","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}