Trump tells Texas crowd that wife Melania calls him ‘sir’

At a Wednesday rally in Texas, President Donald Trump spent a stretch of his speech mocking Democratic state representative James Talarico, the opponent of Republican Senate hopeful and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Trump insisted Talarico is vegan, a label Talarico has rejected. The claim matters politically because a plant-based diet could hurt a candidate in a cattle state, and The Independent notes that Talarico, a seminarian, currently leads Paxton in most recent polling. Paxton's campaign has also pushed the vegan characterization.

Trump drifted into an anecdote about how to pronounce the word, saying his wife, Melania Trump, had asked him to say it a certain way, addressing him as "sir." He then turned back to the crowd, calling out to her that he had gotten it right this time. Trump dismissed Talarico's professed fondness for meat as untrue and joked that the Democrat only wants a little lettuce.

He also offered an explanation for Talarico's recent absence from the campaign trail, saying he is ill and vomiting because he has been made to eat meat for political reasons. No evidence for that was presented.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Independent’s reporting. Read the full story at The Independent →