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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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President Donald Trump was heckled over his alleged ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a rally in Ohio on Wednesday night.
Video posted on X by Robert Potylo, who goes by Robby Roadsteamer on social media, shows him starting a heckle shortly after the president began speaking at the rally in Chillicothe, south of Columbus.
“Trump went on the Jeffrey Epstein plane! Trump went on the Jeffrey Epstein plane!” Potylo sang as the crowd booed.
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Moments later, the video appears to show him being escorted out of the rally while the crowd chants “USA! USA!”
“No political violence! We’re all buddies!” Potylo says to some in the audience as he is escorted out.
Videos on social media show several other instances of the president being heckled during the rally and the protesters being escorted out of the venue.
After Potylo’s heckling, Trump told the audience he had been paid to protest, without evidence.
“You know, there's a guy, not a young guy. They gave him $250. Paid protesters,” he said.
Newsweek has contacted Potylo and the White House for comment via emails sent outside regular business hours.
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Trump Denied Flying On Epstein’s Plane
The rally protest comes days after House Judiciary Committee Democrats released a report calling for an independent special counsel to investigate Trump’s relationship with Epstein, arguing that accounts from women and records released in the Epstein case warrant further investigation into whether Trump committed wrongdoing. The allegations are disputed and have not resulted in any criminal findings against Trump.
The White House has denied the allegations about Trump, with spokesperson Lauren Bis telling Newsweek on Monday: “None of these allegations are true.”
Bis said the report was "a desperate attempt by crazed Democrats to distract Americans from the surging Republican momentum driven by President Trump’s historic achievements.” She said Trump kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club “because he was a creep, and he has been fully exonerated of anything related to Epstein.”
Trump has denied wrongdoing and has not been criminally charged in connection with Epstein’s crimes.
Epstein has emerged as a midterms campaign issue, with Democrats spending millions on Epstein-related ads and hoping the release of the report will have an impact on crucial races in November's elections, with control of Congress at stake.
Epstein was federally indicted in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. The DOJ alleged Epstein formed a vast network of girls, some as young as 14, for him to sexually abuse between 2002 and 2005. He died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial, with federal authorities and New York City’s medical examiner concluding that he died by suicide.
Trump associated with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, but said he cut ties with Epstein in the mid-2000s and denied knowing about Epstein’s abuse.
In early 2024, Trump denied that he had ever travelled on Epstein’s plane, writing on Truth Social that he "was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island.”
Records released by the DOJ last December alleged that Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet “many more times” than previously reported. An email from an unnamed assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York dated January 7, 2020, claimed flight records showed Trump was listed as a passenger on Epstein's private jet eight times between 1993 and 1996.
Trump Heckled At Numerous Rallies
Trump has been heckled at several recent rallies as he continues his cross-country campaign blitz aimed at shoring up support for Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections.
He has traveled even to deep red states that he easily carried in the 2024 election, a sign of challenges Republicans are facing in races that have become unexpectedly competitive amid Trump’s slipping approval ratings and concerns about the Iran war and rising costs.
At a rally in Mississippi on Monday to support Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, an incumbent in a tight race against Democrat Scott Colom, the president was heckled several times during his speech.
In one episode, a protester heckled the president as he spoke about his White House ballroom project. “Shove that ballroom up your fat a**!” the protester yelled.
Trump was also reportedly heckled at least nine times as he spoke at a rally in South Carolina last week.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Toby Meyjes and John Fitzpatrick
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