President Donald Trump, 80, joked about the back of his head at a San Antonio rally on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, saying a glimpse of it on a video screen had left him “depressed,” the Daily Beast reported.
Trump was at the Freeman Coliseum to campaign for Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general and Republican Senate nominee, who faces Democrat James Talarico on Nov. 3.
What Trump Said About His Hair
Trump paused mid-speech after seeing himself from behind and told the crowd he was “not happy right now.” He touched the back of his head several times and said it was “a little bit thin up there.”
“Now I’m depressed,” Trump said. He added that he had thought he looked “really sharp tonight” before seeing the rear view, then said, “This is not good,” and asked the audience twice, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
How the Moment Played Out
Earlier in the speech, Trump asked the crowd to turn toward a screen near the ceiling that played a video about border crossings, and the audience booed the footage. The rear view of his head then appeared on the same screen, the outlet reported.
About five minutes later, Trump brought “Angel Mom” Marie Vega onstage. Her son, Javier “Harvey” Vega Jr., was a Border Patrol agent and a former U.S. Marine. Two people in the country illegally killed him during an attempted robbery while the family was fishing near Santa Monica, Texas, in August 2014. Vega has joined the president at events before, including a White House gathering for Angel Families in February.
Vega told Trump not to worry about his thinning hair and called him handsome. The crowd cheered, and Trump pointed at her and thanked her.
Crowd Size and Protests
DeAnna Garza, the coliseum’s director of booking, told Newsweek the venue set up 6,844 seats for the general public and that the rally officially sold out. She said Trump’s team also put a 40-by-20 video wall in the parking lot, with a livestream for people who could not get in.
“Who the hell fills up an arena like this for a midterm?” Trump asked. As he spoke, a C-SPAN camera showed several empty seats at the top of the arena.
An audience member grabbed a protester who had booed the president, and the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said 18 people were escorted out for disruptive behavior. No arrests were made inside, and two criminal trespass warnings were issued outside, where demonstrators gathered. Trump said, without evidence, that the protesters were paid.
Trump urged Texans to vote as if he were on the ballot and repeated his promise of a $5,000 payment, which he has said would come only if Republicans win in November. He also falsely called Talarico a vegan and said First Lady Melania Trump had corrected how he pronounced the word.
The president also returned to his comments earlier in the week suggesting Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego. He made similar remarks and added, “We’re not going to let that happen.”
Stakes in Texas
The San Antonio stop was Trump’s third Texas trip in less than a month, CNN reported. He had rallied in Grand Island, Neb., on Monday, Oct. 5, and appeared at a shipbuilding investment event in Sparrows Point, Md., on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Trump carried Texas by more than 13 points in 2024, and no Democrat has won statewide there since 1994, but polls show Paxton in a tighter race than expected. Matt Wilson, a Southern Methodist University political analyst, told Fox 4 Dallas that a Trump visit is “a double-edged sword.” He said the president can still energize the MAGA base, while Republicans need to match the enthusiasm among Democrats.
Gov. Greg Abbott did not attend, citing a scheduling conflict, and also missed Trump’s previous Texas appearance. Fox 4 reported he was scheduled to speak at a Republican event in College Station that evening.
On the day of the rally, Axios published audio in which Paxton told donors and lobbyists in September that the Iran war and high gas prices were hurting his campaign. “I don’t make the decisions, and I don’t … know what’s behind some of the decisions,” he said. CNN has not independently verified the audio. Paxton spokeswoman Madison Cercy told the network the attorney general “said what every Texan already knows: gas and diesel prices are too high.”
The Senate Leadership Fund raised its Texas ad commitment to $100 million, the Texas Tribune reported Sept. 22. Separately, the Cook Political Report moved 18 House races toward Democrats on Friday, Oct. 9.
Hair Remarks on the Campaign Trail
Trump’s hair has come up before on his midterm swing. At the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Dallas on Thursday, Sept. 10, he saw the back of his head on the big screens and said, “I gotta do a little bit better in the back right there” and “I shouldn’t have looked up there.” The Daily Beast reported that wind had exposed his scalp as he stood outside Air Force One before leaving for the event.
Trump took the hair-loss drug finasteride, sold as Propecia, during his first term, and it has not appeared on his medical reports since he returned to office. Author Michael Wolff has claimed on the “Inside Trump’s Head” podcast that the president uses a portable kit of small hair tufts matched to his color and applied with paste. That claim has not been independently verified.
