Long before Air Force One departed Washington, D.C. Friday afternoon, bound for Syracuse, the shroud of President Donald Trump’s speech had already reached the city. Clad in merchandise bearing slogans like “B—- I’m the President,” “F— you and your protests” and “I’m still a little Trump girl, I make no apologies,” the ardent followers of the Make America Great Again movement swelled into Syracuse Friday morning. Staunch supporters of the president descended on the parking lot of the Oncenter, where the event was held, more than 10 hours before Trump took the stage, joining a snaking line that wasn’t permitted entrance into the building until the afternoon. The 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution bars Trump, who is serving his second term, from running for that office again. But the president has spent years hinting that he may attempt to do just that — and a scan of the innumerable t-shirts and hats emblazoned with “Trump 2028” signalled the idea would be popular with the MAGA faithful. “We have support like nobody, ever, in the history of politics,” Trump told his devoted fans. Neither he nor they seemed to perceive any disconnect between that statement and Trump’s historic disapproval rating for a president heading into the midterms. Trump’s penchant for pushing the limits of acceptable rhetoric has transformed political expression. Through tens of thousands of untruths, grandiose declarations, casual vulgarity, hostility to the media and perceived enemies, dehumanizing jokes, ungrammatical written statements and a seeming indifference toward aligning his words with material reality, Trump’s speech, long before his visit to Syracuse, has made an indelible mark on American politics. Merch tables peppered a parking lot across from the Oncenter as President Donald Trump supporters lined up for one of the president’s rallies on Friday, October 9, 2026. Credit: Maddi Jane Brown | Central Current “I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap,” Trump told a clapping Tennessee crowd a day after his visit to Central New York. Trump came to Syracuse to stump for Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is running against New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat. The event also featured Kailee Buller, who is challenging Representative John Mannion in New York’s 22nd Congressional District, and Anthony Constatino, the Republican candidate vying to replace Elise Stefanik in NY-21. The politicians who joined Trump onstage Friday night emulated Trump’s rhetoric in their own way, some by villainizing transgender people and immigrants, others by rendering statements into absolute terms or declaring falsehoods as facts. The rally was designed primarily to boost Blakeman and the congressional candidates, who are each battling sharp margins: Blakeman is trailing Hochul by 11 points statewide, but leads the governor in Upstate New York, according to a recent poll from Marist Poll, and Constantino is trailing his Democratic opponent Blake Gendebien by 5% according to a Siena Research Institute poll published Friday. But those gathered in the parking lot, far and away, had come for Trump. Some placed the emphasis on Trump’s office, saying they wanted to witness a presidential address in person. The majority, though, had come for the man whose rhetoric has redefined American discourse in his image. “I’m never going to have an opportunity like this again. If he doesn’t make it into office again, at least I was here once,” said Heather Davis of Scott, New York. “I didn’t want to miss it for the world.” ‘Super intelligence’ Trump’s address in Syracuse bounced from decrying the “dumbocrats,” to declarations that “we took Greenland” and that the Strait of Hormuz was open, to a lengthy argument centered around why Trump deserved the Nobel Peace prize. The president’s speech followed the same formula that guides most of his speeches. It featured jokey impressions of foreign leaders, attacks on the press, blatant falsehoods, an insistence that followers use certain words and phrases of Trump’s choosing, and the occasional dehumanizing dig at enemies. To great applause, Trump said he was happy to be back because he was near “Lake America,” the new name for Lake Ontario, per the president’s insistence. He instructed supporters to begin using “super intelligence” to refer to “artificial intelligence.”  He has declared that anyone who uses the words “artificial intelligence” rather than “super intelligence” is “THE ENEMY.” The president briefly tested out shifting “fake news” to “artificial media,” but soon thought better of it. “I figured I’d use the artificial for the media, the artificial media, the, I don’t know. Let’s call it the fake news. You can’t beat it. The fake and disgusting,” Trump said. “The problem with fake, it’s not tough enough because they’re actually totally dishonest people.” Policies, economies, and tenures in office were characterized as either the absolute best or the absolute worst (maybe ever) in any given subject.  Between heaps of praise for the physical appearance of several men — including famed boxer Mike Tyson, Madison County Sheriff and republican candidate for lieutenant governor Todd Hood, and former Seal Team Six member Robert O’Neill — and declarations that he had “saved more lives than anyone in history,” Trump referred to New York Attorney General Letitia James as “Letitia Peekaboo James.” President Donald Trump with Mike Tyson at his rally at the Oncenter stage. Mike Greenlar | Central Current Then, he casually called the state’s top cop an animal.  “That disgusting Letitia dog. See that dog? You’re fired. Get the hell out of here. They’re corrupt, incompetent. The city and the state are dirty, filthy places,” Trump said. But for the supporters in the Oncenter, that dehumanizing language toward the top law enforcement agent in New York constituted no contradiction to Hood, Blakeman and Trump’s hyperfocus on supporting law enforcement.  Other dehumanizing language featured regularly from the first speakers to the last; Constantino, Blakeman and Trump earned their loudest applause each time any of them referenced one of two topics: What they call “transgender mutilation,” and anything involving immigration enforcement. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman (right) appears with President Donald Trump (left) at the Oncenter in Syracuse on Friday, October 9, 2026. Credit: Mike Greenlar | Central Current Echoes of the casual exaggeration, crudeness and seeming indifference to accuracy or consequence that define many of Trump’s words sounded through other speakers’ remarks, before Air Force One had even reached Syracuse. Hours before Trump spoke, Constantino did his best Trump impression, decrying the “scoundrels in the media.” Later, Trump repeatedly pointed to the press pit and insulted the reporters gathered there. “You know the fake news? See all those people back there? They want to see our country fail,” Trump said. His followers’ boos filled the room, directed at the assembled journalists. Trump then clarified that not all reporters are bad, just “92% of them.” During the president’s extended pitch for why he should get a Nobel Peace Prize, the crowd seemed to sag. But supporters roared to life when Trump referenced a Bronx shooting by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in which an ICE officer shot a man in the neck in front of the man’s young son. That thunderous applause matched the crowd’s earlier reaction when Blakeman had referenced the shooting. Blakeman even emulated Trump’s penchant for bestowing monikers on his rivals — Trump continued to call former President Joe Biden “Sleepy Joe” throughout his speech — debuting a new nickname for Hochul: “Clueless Kathy.” As he has for more than a decade, Trump often made broad claims that lacked evidence. Politifact, the nonpartisan political factchecking organization, found that 78% Trump’s statements are either mostly or completely false; (19% of Trump’s statements are mostly false, 39% are false, and 20% are “pants on fire”, or ridiculous claims, according to Politifact). While he railed against voter fraud on Friday, a February analysis from the libertarian thinktank Cato Institute found that election fraud is “virtually non-existent.” The far-right thinktank Heritage Foundation and some Republican state leaders have scoured voter rolls and citizenship records for evidence of supposed rampant voter fraud, but have consistently failed to produce evidence that noncitizens’ votes have any material impact on American elections.  But that didn’t matter. The speakers declared that Democrats had allowed illegal immigrants into the nation in order to tip the scales on elections, teeing the president up to push for passage of the SAVE America Act before the midterms. Framed as a measure to stop voter fraud, the bill would require citizens to present a valid photo identification to register to vote and to cast a vote, and would also restrict mail-in ballots.  “That’s all they’re good at is cheating. That’s why they don’t want voter ID,” Trump said. A federal grand jury in 2023 charged Trump with “conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, conspiracy against the rights of citizens, and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding” for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost. Those charges were dropped after Trump began his second term. ‘Down With Socialism’ Nearly 74 years prior to the day of Trump’s rally, another president spoke in Syracuse.  President Harry Truman’s remarks in Syracuse, which lasted less than 10 minutes, became a reference point for politicians championing social programs. Truman argued that public power, social security, farm price supports, bank deposit insurance, and the growth of free and independent labor organizations had all been likened in the past to socialism by opponents of those ideas. “Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years,” Truman said. “… Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. When the Republican candidate inscribes the slogan ‘Down With Socialism’ on the banner of his ‘great crusade,’ that is really not what he means at all.” Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and other prominent White House officials have spent months warning of the dangers of socialism. In the week leading up to Trump’s Syracuse rally, Vance was asked directly to define socialism.  Vance said the term is very hard to define in modern times, but said “classically, you would think socialism is about prioritizing workers.” “I think in reality what it actually means in the American context is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers and you want boys to play in girls’ sports,” Vance said. Outside and inside the Oncenter, Trump’s supporters also decried socialism, but faltered when asked by Central Current to define socialism in their own words. The definition of socialism can vary by source, but generally the word is defined as an economic or political system featuring public ownership or control of property, resources, production and distribution. The Democratic Socialists of America define socialism as “a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society.” Faces in the crowd at President Donald Trump’s rally. Credit: Mike Greenlar | Central Current A Central Current reporter asked Constantino what the word socialism meant to him.  “This is a very concerning situation that’s happening in the Democratic Party, they are openly starting to embrace socialism and communism, two ideas that have never worked, they have only caused poverty and harm and death and destruction,” Constantino said. “My opponent hired a communist. It’s tragic the Democratic Party is embracing communism.” When Central Current asked Constantino to define socialism in his own words, the congressional candidate ended the interview and walked away. The string of selected speakers intermittently referenced socialism and communism, with some referring to Hochul and state democratic leaders as “far left politicians” and even implying Hochul, a moderate Democrat, was a socialist. Blakeman stirred the crowd with seven consecutive mispronunciations of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s name as the candidate laid into the mayor’s policies. Blakeman and other speakers throughout the night attempted to link the governor’s political ideology to that of Mamdani, one of the nation’s most prominent Democratic Socialists. Trump put it more bluntly, repeatedly referring to his political opponents across New York as the “Dumbocrat Communists.” The president did not define socialism, either. Though Trump and his supporters’ struggled to define socialism, the consequences for those they label socialists and extremists are very real.  Following the assassination of far-right provocateur Charlie Kirk, the Trump administration in September 2025 said it had designated “Antifa” as a “domestic terrorist organization.” The administration cited “anti-fascist language” like (“hey fascist! catch!”) engraved in the bullets that Kirk’s assassin fired. Antifa is not an organization, rather an abbreviation for “anti-fascist” which some activists self-identify with. Slim LaVelle, a supporter of President Donald Trump, wears a pin honoring Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed in September 2025 during a talk at a university in Utah. Credit: Maddi Jane Brown | Central Current Three days later, Trump issued a national security memorandum called “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” more commonly known as NSPM-7. The directive instructed the Justice Department to create new lists of organizations that the government should deem domestic terrorist organizations, and said “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity” were common threads among such groups. The Brennan Center for Justice said the Trump directive’s true aim was to criminalize opposition, and the American Civil Liberties Union declared the directive seeks to use the specter of “domestic terrorism” to target activists and non-profits. Illinois Senator Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and Department of Defense official, in December 2025 outlined how former Department of Justice Secretary Pam Bondi had directed the FBI’s Joint terrorism task forces — which traditionally investigated groups like ISIS and Al-Queda — to investigate antifa and other individuals and groups. In January, independent reporter Ken Klippenstein obtained a leaked draft of the 2026 Homeland Security Assessment, which contained language implying that “anti-government sentiments, racial and ethnic grievances. anti-Israel and anti-Semitic beliefs, and class-based or economic grievances” were also indicators of potential domestic terrorist activity. Surveillance has also expanded to target individuals critical of artificial intelligence and AI data centers. The DOJ in June also meted out the first major charges of supposed Antifa terrorists in Texas — amounting to 450 years for nine protesters — which included sentencing a man to 30 years in prison for moving a box of antifascist zines.  Secretary of State Marco Rubio in July published a 100-page report entitled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism,” in which Rubio connected the Democratic Socialists of America and over 40 other American organizations and individuals to Cuba and communism. Rubio in the report described the effectiveness of the federal government’s “blacklists, McCarthy-era investigations and prosecutions” in combating the Communist Party USA in the 1950s. As the government sics intelligence agencies on citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights, the stated target appears to be expanding beyond supposed antifa operatives and socialists. The initiative preceded Trump’s arrival in Syracuse, where ICE in June appeared at a polling station on primary election day to issue a warning to a Syracuse woman over a January social media post. ‘This is not love thy neighbor’ The impact of Trump’s visit to Syracuse remains to be seen, but the influence of the president’s persona was on display after Trump danced off the stage to the Village People’s “YMCA”. As hundreds of Trump supporters funneled out of the Oncenter and walked back through the parking lot, some spoke of confronting anti-Trump protesters. About 2,500 anti-Trump protesters had demonstrated at Clinton Square Friday evening, and a large number of protesters then marched to the Oncenter during the rally.  Five others were removed from Trump’s rally for disrupting the president’s remarks. Each was swiftly drowned in boos, talked over and insulted by the president and shown the door by sheriff’s deputies. “They’re all paid by the radical left scum,” Trump said as the first protester was removed from his rally. “…They are all paid political actors. Losers all. Every one of them’s a loser.” A group of protesters gather outside police barricades near the Oncenter, where President Donald Trump spoke on Friday, October 9, 2026. Credit: Maddi Jane Brown | Central Current When Trump’s speech ended and the crowd poured out of the exit gates, the enemies Trump had conjured for the 90 minutes prior were nowhere to be found — no large crowd of “dumbocrats” to combat, no “illegal migrants” to remove, no socialist army to destroy. Walking toward the parking lot’s exit, some supporters could hear the distant shouts of protesters, and began chanting “USA, USA, USA.” After waiting for motorcades to depart, Syracuse police officers allowed attendees to exit the parking lot. Much of the Trump crowd turned left onto South Townsend Street, where some found the source of the shouts — and the confrontation they had hoped for. Atop a small hill outside of the Everson Art Museum, four young women stood bearing signs with statements like “Go F— Yourself” and “Trump is Netanyahu’s B—-.” The women did not mince words. Neither did Trump’s supporters.. “He’s a pedophile!” (Trump has never been held civilly liable nor has he been convicted of criminal charges related to pedophilia. Trump’s name appears extensively in the Epstein files.) “Get a job!” “F— Trump!” “USA! USA! USA!” A Trump supporter gave the women the middle finger. After, a woman steered her young daughter, clad in a red Trump hat, toward the protesters. The child had her middle finger brandished, too. Each camp shouted “f— you!” at the other. An old man walked up to the women, and told them to “go f— yourself.” “Trump is a b—-!” Beneath the shadow of Trump’s speech, the back-and-forth swirled into a storm of vitriol as hundreds of Trump supporters streamed by the protesters. When the crowd diminished, one of the anti-Trump demonstrators could be heard attempting to appeal to the Trump supporters’ better nature. “The difference between us is our skin color! There is no large difference! I am just like you!” she said. “The difference is I’m Black. We are no different. We are no different. The only difference is our skin color!” “I know, I love Black girls,” a young man sneered. “Me too!” another chimed in. “This is not love thy neighbor!” the woman yelled. “This is not the Christian truth!” But the young men had already walked on, smiles on their faces. 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