President Donald Trump delivered a surprisingly mild version of his views on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday during a Michigan rally, telling the audience that the New York Democrat “doesn’t bug me too much,” even as he attacked her progressive allies in Congress.
Trump remarked during his rally at the McMorran Place Sports & Entertainment Center in support of Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee in Michigan’s open U.S. Senate race, nine days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. The remark stood out because it contrasted sharply with the harsher language Trump often uses to describe Ocasio-Cortez.
Amid a broader attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, another member of “the Squad,” the progressive wing of the House Democratic Caucus, Trump called Omar “a little troublemaker” and told her to resign from Congress. Trump reiterated the false claim that she took the oath of office using a fake name. Omar maintains that her name “has always been Ilhan Omar.”
Reacting to Omar’s criticisms of his administration, Trump said, “United States of America. How dare you run it? Why does it piss me off? And she and her other friends and her other friends, I always say AOC plus three, but somehow I don’t mind AOC that much. I don’t know why she doesn’t bug me too much, but they call them AOC plus three. The plus three love being called plus three, you know, but they’re just bad. Something wrong with them.”
For years now, Trump has used “AOC plus three” to refer to the original members of “the Squad”: Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, all four of whom were first elected to the House in 2018.
The comment stands out against Trump’s usual way of talking about the Democrats. Earlier this year, after Ocasio-Cortez participated in the Munich Security Conference, Trump said her remarks there were “not a good look for the United States” and posted on Truth Social that she and California Gov. Gavin Newsom were embarrassing the nation.
Trump’s not the only one who drew attention to Ocasio-Cortez from the stage that day. David Beamer, whose son Todd perished aboard United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, told the crowd that the “democratic socialists” should leave Michigan and said, “they might even take comrade AOC with them.”
Port Huron was among the stops on a tour to turn the Senate seat currently held by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters into Republican hands. Rogers, a former congressman who came close to winning a Senate seat in 2024, with less than 19,000 votes separating him from victory, faces Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in one of the top races in the midterms. For Republicans to gain control of the Senate (where Republicans hold 53 seats), they need four seats.
Throughout the entire address, Trump made sure to single out El-Sayed, who is Muslim, repeatedly referring to him as a “jihadist.” Michigan Advance described the comments as Islamophobic and reported that there is no evidence that El-Sayed’s immediate family has any connection to the Muslim Brotherhood or international terror networks.
After the rally, El-Sayed’s campaign accused Rogers of being a “rubber stamp” for the Trump administration. Former President Barack Obama came to Detroit on Saturday with El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic nominee for governor, to tell voters to “flip that circuit breaker” on Trump’s agenda.
Mike Rogers, appearing with U.S. Rep. John James, the GOP nominee for governor, told the crowd, “Michigan, we have a state to save.” Other speakers included rapper Nicki Minaj, who flew in from Florida on Air Force One.
Meanwhile, Trump’s remarks come as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become one of the most prominent Democrats in the campaign’s final days and a harsh critic of the administration. She has gone on the road with Democratic candidates in Michigan, Maine, Ohio, California, and Nevada, drawing big crowds. This week, in Michigan’s Republican-leaning Upper Peninsula, she spoke to thousands of supporters.
At a campaign stop alongside El-Sayed in the Upper Peninsula earlier this month, Ocasio-Cortez pointed to Rogers’ record in Congress, which she said showed “14 years of telling Michiganders one thing and then doing another in Washington.”
This week, while on the trail with Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson in Maine, she accused the administration of using federal law enforcement as a political weapon and promised that Democrats will pursue investigations and accountability in the Justice Department and FBI if they win a majority in Congress. “I’m talking subpoenas, I’m talking investigations,” she said.
She called the administration “sells-out every single person in this country for a buck” last month after it became known that a Russian oligarch helped finance Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding.
For now, the race is seen as a test for Ocasio-Cortez to see whether her approach to politics will succeed in the competitive environment ahead of a potential 2028 presidential run.
Clips of the exchange spread quickly online. Mediaite noted that, in the context of Trump’s own words, it comes across as a warm compliment to his Democratic colleagues.
Many social media users interpreted the remark as Trump’s grudging acknowledgment of Ocasio-Cortez’s willingness to go against political norms. Some people joked about the possibility of the first lady, Melania Trump, having to step up her game.
It was among several moments that garnered attention from the nearly two-hour-long speech, including Trump’s comments about Minaj’s appearance and claim that the U.S. owns Greenland now.
Election Day is Nov. 3.
