Youngstown divided as ‘last Republican president’ Trump claims Rustbelt revival

On Columbus Day here in Youngstown, Ohio, the street outside the Covelli Centre, where the Phantoms play ice hockey on winter nights, heard two distinct stories. On one side, a loud and raucous protest against president Trump and the administration and, on the other, the Trump merch’ sellers waiting for the Maga crowds arriving in the mild autumn sunshine. The Republican fans arriving from the east of the street were forced to run a gauntlet through protesters, who heckled them with taunts about Epstein and paedophilia.This latest rally, primarily for Jon Husted, the senator locked in a vital race against the Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown, has brought Trump to Ohio for the second time in a week. Mahoning County was once a Democratic bastion. Youngstown is its urban heart and for years it was its economic furnace, too. Decades of neglect by successive administrations left it open to a new message. It could be said that Trump turned this fabled Rust Belt City a deep political red. In 2020, he became the first Republican presidential candidate to win the county in half a century. In 2024, he won Mahoning again, by a clear 10 points. Now, Husted has claimed that he has sensed “a change of energy” among the Republican base in recent weeks.But in the late afternoon, outside the arena, it was the protesters who carried most of the day’s energy.READ MORE“This area went so big for Trump and the Republicans last time, but I am glad there is a strong showing of this support,” said Chris McBride, who travelled from nearby Warren to attend the gathering.“Gas prices is one of those things that trickles down to everybody but it’s not just what you’re paying at the pump, it’s what you are not able to afford because of what you are paying at the counter. Daily life has gotten more expensive. Youngstown and Warren already have low economic output so you are making hard problems 10 times harder for people. Ice is very much present around here. A Mexican restaurant I used to go to – the people who owned it just got deported. I wish more people would pay attention to that.”Pat Gill moved from Canton to Youngstown a year ago. Around the downtown are symbols of new business and entrepreneurial initiatives – breweries and start-ups reimagined in the imposing, long abandoned industrial buildings. This is an evocative part of the country. But Youngstown’s recovery from its fabled industrial might – “them smokestacks reachin’ like the arms of God into a beautiful sky of soot and clay”, as Bruce Springsteen put it in his mournful ode to the city – has been slow and tortuous. Gill (24) is among a generation waiting to see what the city can offer it.“I feel like Youngstown is trying. It really is. But I feel like a lot of people are losing hope. I feel like a lot of people my age are turning to things like drugs. I know so many people who overdosed on fentanyl. I’ve been clean for a year off of hard drugs. And seeing everything getting blasted in your face all the time, on the internet, on the news, it makes people feel, like, just not good.”For the older demographic, the date of September 19th, 1977, will hold a permanent significance: 5,000 jobs lost in one day in the Campbell plant, presaging a collapse of about 50,000 jobs over the following decade. Few cities could sustain a fall into that kind of economic vortex. “Tough times don’t last. Tough Cities do” is an unofficial slogan.Inside the arena, Trump’s story was about the ongoing revitalisation of the Rust Belt and he came equipped with numbers and statistics.“After years of steel mills and factories closing across Ohio, our steel industry is roaring back to life. Manufacturing is booming. And American exports have soared to the highest level in history,” he told them, referencing an $800 million Kimberly-Clark investment in Warren and a $48 million investment by Valluourec, a French steel and pipe production company, in Youngstown.Attendees cheer for Donald Trump during a campaign rally ahead of the midterm elections in Youngstown, Ohio. Photograph: Kenny Holston/The New York Times His voice echoed around the hockey arena, which holds a capacity of 7,000, and the crowd stood to applaud at that. The rear tiers were closed off but two open sections available for attendees remained empty. In the front row of the floor seating were some familiar Maga loyalists, including the “brick suit guy”, Blake Marnell, and the “Front Row Joes”, who habitually follow Trump like Deadheads of old. The enthusiasm for Trump remains even if, as a spectacle, this Monday night appearance in the Rust Belt was greatly reduced in scale and intensity from the sort of mega-rallies Trump commanded two years ago.But Trump’s daily schedule of rallies in toss-up states like Ohio is about repetition of the message, and stirring and energising his base.“This is almost as important as the presidency,” said one Republican, Peggy, before the event began.“Absolutely. Because you got these socialist people who are just ... crazy. I don’t understand them.”She was there with Debbie and Bill Zammery. The trio had just walked through the picket line of protesters calling at Republicans as they passed. They were unfazed by the experience. “It’s absurd. ‘He’s a paedophile.’ Is that the best you can come up with? It’s just crazy talk,” Debbie said.“We’ve got a lot of mentally unstable people in America,” Bill added.He believes the midterms are vital for the Trump presidency but is uncertain about the overall outcome.“In America you can’t be confident about anything any more. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. That’s why people have to get out and vote.”Inside the arena, Trump offered a speech that contained his familiar mix of accomplishments listed and dark premonitions of what will happen if the “Dumocrats” are returned to power. He had the Haitian community in Springfield on his mind. He had the Somali community in Minneapolis on his mind. The day had opened with the news that federal agents had raided the home of Somali congresswoman for Minnesota Ilhan Omar.Trump paused his speech when a protester began shouting from the crowd and was brusquely removed by security. Protests and interruptions have become a feature at the president’s rallies over the past few weeks. Then, he offered a dark vision of what awaits his believers if they relinquish the balance of power over the past few weeks.A protester yells as she is removed from the venue as Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio, on October 12th, 2026. Photograph: Kent NISHIMURA/AFP via Getty Images “You will look at me right now and you will say he is going to be the last Republican president in history. I will be. I will be the last Republican president because they [the Democrats] will add about 12 more electoral votes, 10 more congresspeople, they’re gonna rig the supreme court through a lot of people.”Later, Jake Paul, the mixed martial arts fighter and social media phenomenon and a son of Cleveland, took to the stage. “Youngstown! OH! IO! Man, it is good to be home. I grew up about an hour from here in Cleveland. We love Ohio. My mom is here, she still lives here, blue-collar people just like all the people here in Youngstown. I get confused by the people on the left, all the protesters. Do they not have jobs?’The crowd laughed hard. But in Youngstown, the joke has a bitter ring to it.