'I Love the Meat!' Trump Mocks James Talarico With Barbecue Impression at Texas Rally

Donald Trump mocked Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico with an exaggerated barbecue impression on 27 October, pretending to praise meat before describing his opponent vomiting behind a tent.

Speaking at the Port of Corpus Christi while campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, Trump revived an attack linking Talarico's dietary choices to his earlier absence from campaign events. He offered no evidence that eating meat had caused the Democrat's illness.

The impression rested on a disputed premise: that Talarico is vegan and eats barbecue to conceal it from voters. His campaign has explicitly rejected that description.

'James is not and has never been a vegan,' a campaign spokesperson previously said. His campaign has also shared photographs of him eating chicken, steak and a turkey leg.

Trump Acts Out a Barbecue Scene

During his remarks, Trump suggested Talarico had been 'food poisoned by meat', then adopted a mocking voice to portray the Democrat attempting to demonstrate enthusiasm for barbecue.

'I love the meat,' Trump said in the impression, before imagining Talarico retreating out of sight to be sick. The speech transcript records laughter during the passage.

Trump also told the audience that Melania Trump had corrected his pronunciation of vegan. He contrasted his own enjoyment of meat with the dietary identity he assigned to Talarico, before returning to attacks on the Democrat's political positions.

The sequence presented an imagined scene, rather than an identified incident supported by a date, location or witness. Trump did not provide evidence during the passage that Talarico had vomited after eating barbecue.

Talarico Had Reported Having Flu

The illness Trump revisited had already become a campaign issue earlier in October, when Talarico cancelled some appearances and moved an event online.

During a virtual appearance on 30 September, Talarico said he had felt increasingly unwell and visited urgent care in Dallas. He explained that he wanted to avoid passing the illness to other people. His campaign subsequently said he was battling flu.

Reporting on 8 October also clarified that Talarico was not vegan, despite Republican attacks stemming from comments he made in 2022 about reducing meat consumption. He said his Texas House re-election campaign was buying only vegan products from local businesses as part of efforts to reduce meat consumption.

At the Corpus Christi rally, Trump nevertheless revisited the absence and floated alternative explanations, including food poisoning and mental illness. Those suggestions were political assertions, not established medical explanations for Talarico's time away from public events.

A Personal Attack in the Final Campaign Week

The remarks came one week before the 3 November midterm elections, as Trump sought support for Paxton in the Texas Senate contest.

During the approximately 77-minute address, Trump repeatedly targeted Talarico, used a derogatory variation of his name and claimed he would threaten Texans' access to guns, oil and meat. Paxton also joined Trump onstage.

Trump's words document how he portrayed his opponent; they do not establish the truth of the dietary or medical claims behind the joke. Talarico reported illness, while his campaign rejected the vegan label that Trump continued to use.