President Trump vowed at a packed San Antonio get-out-the-vote rally that he will never forgive Texas if Democrat James Talarico wins, warning open borders would return under Democrats.
President Trump arrived Wednesday for a get-out-the-vote rally at San Antonio’s Joe Freeman Coliseum as Republicans pressed for maximum turnout ahead of early voting. The venue sat nearly at capacity, with several thousand still waiting outside and an outdoor jumbotron carrying the program to the overflow crowd.
Breitbart Texas reported the Wednesday night event marked Trump’s third visit to the state since late September, underscoring how tightly the White House is watching Texas races as Election Day nears.
Doors opened at 2:00 p.m. Food trucks and merchandise vendors filled the grounds. Air Force One touched down at Kelly Field, and minutes later a motorcade of more than 30 vehicles, led by dozens of San Antonio Police Department motorcycle officers, moved toward the coliseum shortly before 6:00 p.m. after Secret Service and local law enforcement closed major thoroughfares.
Texas Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton appeared at the rally with Republican U.S. House candidate Carlos de la Cruz. Outside, at least 200 organized protesters gathered along Houston Street while officers kept the two groups apart.
Attendees lined up early, hoping for a spot inside. Law enforcement patrolled the streets and coliseum grounds in large numbers. Protesters stayed peaceful and separate from arriving rally-goers.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Bexar County Democrats began promoting the demonstrations on social media soon after the rally was announced. Signs included vulgar anti-ICE messages and support for Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico.
Personal and political hostility has followed Trump for years, including episodes detailed in reporting on federal charges over alleged threats before a campus rally.
A PSL Instagram post framed the protest around immigration enforcement and declared Trump unwelcome in Texas.
The post said in part:
"San Antonio is a majority Hispanic city, devastated disproportionately by Trump’s campaign of terror through ICE. With one in four deportations happening in Texas, the horror is palpable. But Texas is not a lost cause. Texas has never sat idly by. Join us to stand up and fight back and show Trump that he is NOT welcome in our state!"
That language cast routine immigration enforcement as terror. Trump used the San Antonio stage to argue the opposite: that loose borders and weak leadership had already damaged Texas once and must not return.
Speaking to the crowd, Trump made the Senate race personal and tied it directly to immigration policy. He reminded voters of the border chaos that marked the Biden years and said a Democratic win would reopen the floodgates.
Trump told the audience:
"I’ll never forgive Texas if Talarico wins,"
He followed with a clear warning about what he said would follow a Democratic takeover.
"If they get in, they will open your borders and let the entire world pour in like they did before. We can’t let that happen,"
Trump has long treated certain political attacks as unforgivable, a stance familiar to readers who followed White House records on Biden-era FBI monitoring of Melania and Barron Trump.
He sharpened the contrast further with a direct shot at the Democratic Senate candidate.
"A vote for Talafreako is a vote to turn Texas into a dirty, failing, crime-ridden third-world dumping ground."
And he cast the broader cultural fight in blunt terms:
"The people of Texas are NOT going to let weak, gutless, self-hating, transgender-promoting FREAK SHOWS destroy everything that we’ve built."
The message was turnout or consequences. Trump presented the choice as secure borders and ordered government on one side, and a return to the prior administration’s immigration failures on the other.
While Trump spoke inside, the street demonstration remained peaceful. Secret Service and local officers held the perimeter and kept protesters and rally attendees separated throughout the evening. No injuries, arrests, or property damage were reported in the coverage.
Long-running political warfare has shaped how Trump frames these fights, including accounts of how a Clinton campaign scandal poll helped set off the Trump-Russia probe.
Paxton’s appearance alongside de la Cruz put the state party’s Senate and House priorities on the same stage. The rally itself functioned as a late-cycle turnout machine: large crowd, heavy security, clear warning about the Senate ballot line, and repeated focus on border policy.
Trump’s refusal to shrug off what he sees as bad-faith attacks fits a broader pattern, including his demand that Axios retract an Iran sanctions report he called a hoax.
Early voting runs October 19 through October 30. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. The San Antonio stop was designed to leave no doubt about the stakes Trump assigns to holding Republican offices in Texas and blocking a Senate win by Talarico.
Crowd size, motorcade scale, and the third visit since late September all pointed to the same conclusion: the president is treating Texas turnout as decisive. He put the warning in plain language, forgive nothing if the wrong candidate prevails, and tied that warning to the border record voters already lived through.
Texas ballots will soon show whether voters heard him.