Trump rates GOP candidates by looks at midterm rallies

President Donald Trump is sizing up Republican candidates by their jawlines and shoulders as the 2026 midterm elections approach, turning campaign stops into physical appraisals that mix praise with public insults. At a Saturday rally in Kentucky, Trump directed attention to U.S. House candidate Ed Gallrein, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, calling him “central casting” and a “beautiful guy,” according to remarks delivered from the stage.

The assessments have grown increasingly specific. Discussing Sen. Jon Husted, an Ohio Republican running for reelection, Trump told the crowd he physically inspected the former college football player. “I examined his ass,” Trump said, drawing laughter. “I never did that with a man before. 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.” He had made nearly identical comments about Husted at an earlier Ohio rally.

Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton received the opposite treatment. Standing nearby at the party’s midterm convention, Paxton grinned while Trump told the audience, “I don’t really like the way he looks.” Trump had previously acknowledged the remark was insulting but delivered it anyway, adding that Paxton’s conservative record as attorney general “speaks a lot louder than the suit he’s wearing that doesn’t look so great.”

Democrats face similar scrutiny. Trump compared Paxton’s opponent, Democratic candidate James Talarico, to Alfred E. Neuman, the gap-toothed mascot of MAD magazine. In Georgia on Friday, while campaigning for Rep. Mike Collins, Trump dismissed Sen. Jon Ossoff’s appearance by comparing the Democrat to Pee-wee Herman. “Somebody said, ‘He’s a good-looking man,’ I don’t think he’s a good-looking man,” Trump said. “I actually think Mike Collins is a good-looking man, and he’s all man.”

The fixation on physical aesthetics traces directly to Trump’s decades outside politics. Before entering government, he owned the Miss Universe beauty pageant and built his national profile hosting “The Apprentice,” where visual presentation functioned as a core metric of success. That framework now operates as a campaign tool during a midterm cycle already dominated by debates over which candidates project more masculinity. Control of Congress hinges on these races, determining whether Trump faces emboldened Democratic opposition in Washington during his second term.

Georgia’s Republican nominee for governor, Rick Jackson, secured a passing grade during the same Friday event. “I actually think that Rick Jackson is a very handsome, distinguished, beautiful-looking guy,” Trump said. He paused. “But anyway.”