‘I never did that with a man before’: Trump fawns over Ohio Republican’s body at Kentucky rally

President Donald Trump returned Saturday to a subject he had explored on the campaign trail days earlier — Republican Sen. Jon Husted’s body.

Speaking at Northern Kentucky University, Trump told an audience that he had scrutinized the Ohio senator while Husted addressed a crowd, describing an inspection that extended from his backside to his jawline.

“He came up, and he was talking very nicely, and I stood right over here, and I examined his ass,” Trump said. “I never did that with a man before.”

Then he kept going. “I examined his ass, and then I looked at his shoulders, I looked at his feet, I looked at his hand, I looked at his jawline, studying.”

Trump went on to imagine Husted intimidating someone in a bar, describe the firmness of his shoulder, and suggest his own commentary had improved the senator’s standing with voters.

“He’s got a jawline,” Trump said. “You would be very unfortunate if you picked a fight with him at a bar someday.”

Trump returned to their physical encounter.

“But I then patted him on the shoulder, and it was like a piece of steel,” he said. “I’m still recovering my hand.”

Related: Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to replace JD Vance in the U.S. Senate

A campaign story gets another telling

The president had already described studying Husted’s body at an October 12 rally in Youngstown, Ohio. As The Advocate previously reported, Trump said he looked at the senator’s backside, admired his hands, and repeatedly drew attention to his jawline while talking about Husted’s football background at the University of Dayton.

Saturday’s appearance made clear that Trump considered the anecdote worth repeating — and, by his own telling, politically useful.

“And he’s picked up like nine or 10 points since I talked about that,” Trump claimed.

Earlier in the Kentucky rally, Trump had introduced Husted as a candidate running just across the Ohio River. According to a White House travel pool report, Trump called him humble, quiet, and respectful, then added, “Good-looking guy.”

The pool report said Trump also recounted introducing Husted to football coach Jon Gruden and learning that the two had played together at Dayton.

Husted faces Democrat Sherrod Brown in the Ohio Senate race. Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Husted in January 2025 to the seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance.

Related: Donald Trump rambles about how much he likes Jon Husted’s “ass” at rally

From Arnold Palmer’s anatomy to Hegseth’s military ideal

Husted is the latest man whose physique Trump has made a subject of campaign commentary. At an October 2024 rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Trump veered into a discussion of the late golf legend Arnold Palmer’s genitals. Trump attributed his account to other golfers’ reactions in the showers.

“When he took showers with other pros, they came out of there, and they said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable,’” Trump told the crowd.

That preoccupation with masculine appearance has a policy counterpart in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon, where body composition, grooming, and testosterone have become recurring themes of his leadership. The Advocate previously reported on Hegseth’s demands for stricter physical standards and his denunciations of troops whose appearance falls outside his prescribed military ideal.

At another Quantico address this month, Hegseth again ridiculed troops’ weight and appearance, used an anti-transgender slur, and presented testosterone testing as a feature of his remade military. “The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in with testosterone testing on top,” he said.

The Kentucky rally was part of a broader Republican campaign push. Trump also praised Kentucky Senate nominee Andy Barr and congressional candidate Ed Gallrein, according to the pool report. He urged supporters to treat the midterms as a referendum on him.

“In this election, I’m asking you to pretend I’m on the ballot,” Trump said.