Donald Trump launched a barrage of jibes at Montana Senator Jon Tester’s weight during his rally on Friday night, just hours after he was accused of repeatedly calling Kamala Harris a ‘b****.’
The former president, 78, took aim at the Montana senator’s largess as the Democrat faces a tough re-election fight in November for a race that could define who controls the upper chamber of Congress.
‘I don’t speak badly about somebody’s physical disability,’ Trump said, possibly noting that Tester lost three fingers on one hand in a meat-grinder accident when he was nine.
‘But he’s got the biggest stomach I’ve ever seen,’ Trump added.
Scrutiny has fallen on Trump’s operation in recent days amid an apparent slow-down in campaigning, but the former president drew a huge crowd to Friday’s event in Bozeman, Montana.
Insiders told the New York Times that he has found the transformation after Biden dropped out as being disorientating.
In response to the change in rivals, behind close doors, he has reportedly branded Harris a ‘b****’, two people told the outlet.
His campaign denied that language in a statement, but his quickness to attack has reportedly left him open to manipulation.
While attacking Tester’s weight, Trump rallied his supporters by slamming the senator on issues from the southern border to his voting record.
‘For years, Tester has been telling Montana that he’s a moderate,’ he said. ‘While he votes with Biden, Harris, and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.’
Trump’s jab at Tester’s ‘biggest stomach’ is not the first time he has attacked the Montana Democrat’s weight. He reportedly said Tester ‘looks pregnant’ at a private fundraiser in May, according to Politico.
He told attendees: ‘Have you ever seen this guy? He doesn’t look like a fat guy, except that his stomach is out.’
That fundraiser in May was in aid of Texas Congressman – and former White House physician – Ronny Jackson, who also spoke at the rally in Montana on Friday night.
In his remarks in Bozeman, Jackson echoed Trump’s attack on Tester’s weight as he branded him a ‘hippopotamus.’
‘This man is a sleazy, disgusting swamp politician,’ Jackson said. ‘The end of Jon Tester’s career starts tonight.
‘We’re going to bring (Tester’s election opponent) Tim Sheehy to the Senate to replace this swamp hippopotamus Jon Tester.
Trump’s focus on Tester’s weight comes as many have noticed the former president appeared to lose weight in recent years, sparking speculation from some that he joined a growing number of celebrities who take Ozempic.
Tester is seen as one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the senate in this election cycle, as one of the leading incumbents in a state that Trump won handily in the 2020 presidential race.
With control of the senate currently a 50-50 split only decided by Vice-President Kamala Harris, close senate elections are drawing the spotlight ahead of November.
With Montana routinely a Republican supporting state, Tester’s campaign has attempted to draw a clear line between him and the Biden-Harris administration.
In a Tester campaign advert released earlier this year, it was claimed that he ‘worked with Republicans fighting to shut down the border, target fentanyl traffickers, and add hundreds of new Border Patrol agents.
‘And he fought to stop President Biden from letting migrants stay in America instead of remain in Mexico.’
In contrast, Sheehy’s remarks at Friday’s event saw him attempt to lump Tester in with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, branding him a ‘rubber stamp for the Biden-Harris agenda every single time it matters.’
‘Jon Tester couldn’t find the courage to say, “I’m going to vote against these terrible policies that are bad for Montanans,”’ said Sheehy, a former military officer and businessman.
According to a Decision Desk HQ poll cited by The Hill, Sheehy is running slightly ahead of Tester heading into the election, at 49 percent to 45 percent.