'Pretend that I'm on the ballot': Trump rallies Northern Kentucky for Ed Gallrein
LOCAL 12's full recording of the Highland Heights speech runs from House endorsements to a $5,000 'Trump dividend', with a split reaction when Thomas Massie comes up.
LOCAL 12
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 63,193 views a day, 72 times a normal first day on this channel (874).
Trump touts his power in Northern Kentucky rally to energize voters ahead of midterms
Things we can learn from the video
Press to jump
- 2:40Trump endorses Ed Gallrein for Kentucky's 4th Congressional District after earlier praising Andy Barr.
- 3:13A protester interrupts, the crowd chants, and Trump says protesters are paid.
- 4:55Trump endorses Jon Husted for Senate in Ohio and retells Jon Gruden's story about Husted's football career.
- 10:44Trump asks the audience to vote as if he were on the ballot.
- 14:15He jokes about renaming the Gulf of Mexico the 'Gulf of America.'
- 43:05Trump proposes a $5,000 tariff-funded 'Trump dividend' if Republicans win both houses of Congress.
A regular video on LOCAL 12 usually draws fewer than a thousand views on its first day. The Cincinnati station's recording of President Donald Trump's rally in Highland Heights, just across the Ohio River in Kentucky, passed 63,000, and its comment section filled far faster than usual.
The video is the speech itself, close to an hour of it. Its central request comes about ten minutes in: "I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot," Trump tells the crowd, before calling this "the most important midterm in the history of our country."
The local race is Kentucky's 4th Congressional District. Trump praises Ed Gallrein, recalling that when Gallrein walked into the Oval Office he thought, "That guy is central casting." Gallrein beat Rep. Thomas Massie in the Republican primary with Trump's backing, after Massie pushed for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and opposed the Iran war. According to the Associated Press account published with the video, when Trump called Massie a "jerk" and a "loser," about half the arena clapped and the other half stayed silent.
Trump also endorses Andy Barr, then turns to Ohio's Senate race and Jon Husted, whom LOCAL 12 filmed beside Trump earlier this month, as we reported here. Trump retells a Jon Gruden story about Husted's college football days. At one point he says goodbye, pretends to leave and then returns to the podium.
The biggest promise comes more than forty minutes in. If Republicans win both the House and the Senate, Trump says, every adult citizen will get a $5,000 "Trump dividend" paid for by tariffs, which must be spent in the United States. The AP account notes that the payment would most likely cost more than a trillion dollars and would need congressional approval.
The rally recording far outdrew the station's other political coverage that day, including a report on the Florence mayor's race.
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- Channel
- LOCAL 12
- Subscribers
- 283,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 761,822
- Channel views, pace per day
- 72,074 (on a normal day: 131,766)
- Video published
- October 18, 2026
- Video views so far
- 69,908 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 54,493
The numbers
For a station whose regular videos usually start quietly, this rally recording opened at a very different pace.
💡 Test your knowledge
Which river separates Northern Kentucky from Cincinnati?
The Ohio River forms the boundary between Kentucky and Ohio, with Cincinnati on its northern bank.