President Donald Trump on Wednesday sought to nationalize Georgia's marquee 2026 U.S. Senate race, portraying Sen. Jon Ossoff as part of what he described as the Democratic Party's drift toward communism while urging voters to replace him with Rep. Mike Collins.
Trump spoke during a rally at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia. His comments aired live on Newsmax and the free Newsmax2 streaming platform.
Trump repeatedly tied Ossoff to his broader attacks on Democrats, arguing the party has moved beyond socialism.
"The radical left is actively trying to destroy our children's future with the disaster known as communism," Trump said.
"Communism is the single greatest threat to our country and its history … and it is the enemy of the free people everywhere in the world."
"It's squalor, it's poverty, it's death, it's destruction. And that's why we declare again today that the United States of America will never be a communist country," Trump said.
Turning to Georgia politics, Trump said, "Georgia's a state that believes in common sense. And yet your terrible senator, Jon Ossoff, he's terrible.
"Jon Ossoff and the congressional Democrats voted against securing our border, they voted against our massive tax cuts that you have, they voted against the Trump accounts for your children."
Trump accused Ossoff and congressional Democrats of aligning with the party's left wing.
"They're afraid of the communists," Trump said. "Jon Ossoff and the Democrat communists want to let the Marxists into power, bankrupt your families, and leave you totally undefended with wide open borders."
"But we will not let that happen to our country," he said.
The president also revived a nickname for the first-term Democrat, comparing him to the child-like television character Pee-wee Herman.
Trump said Ossoff reminds him of Pee-wee Herman, later referring to the first-term senator as a "Pee-wee Herman lookalike."
Trump spent several minutes praising Collins, who won a June 16 runoff election to secure the Republican nomination to challenge Ossoff in November.
Trump called Collins "maybe the most highly respected congressman" in Washington and urged supporters to back him.
"I hope you're going to vote for Mike," Trump said. "You've got to vote for him because he's running against, I call him Pee-wee Herman."
The president also recalled intervening in a 2017 special election for Georgia's 6th Congressional District, when Ossoff narrowly missed winning outright before ultimately losing the runoff to Republican Karen Handel.
"I beat him once before as a congressional candidate," Trump said, adding that Ossoff "was easy to beat."
Although Ossoff later won election to the Senate, Trump argued he "isn't respected at all in Washington."
By contrast, Trump called Collins "one of the most highly respected people" in Congress and said the Republican "will bring a lot of action back to your state."
"We'll be helping you," Trump said. "Vote for Mike."
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