President Donald Trump, 80, told a rally crowd in San Antonio on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, that his wife of 21 years, First Lady Melania Trump, 56, addresses him as “sir” — the same way his staff does.
Trump spoke at Freeman Coliseum at a rally in support of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 63, the Republican Senate candidate, and congressional candidate Carlos De La Cruz. Melania Trump was not at the coliseum.
The “sir” line came during an extended riff on the eating habits of Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, 37, a seminarian, that turned to the phonetics and pronunciation of “vegan.”
Trump said the first lady urged him to pronounce the word properly. He told the crowd: “You know, my wife told me, ‘Sir, do me a favor. You have to do me just a little bit of a favor. It’s not vaygan, it’s vegan.’”
Trump referred to his wife with a masculine pronoun during the retelling. He said he doesn’t follow that sort of thing.
Trump added, at the rally: “I called it vaygan, vaygan. How the hell would I know? I like steak.”
Trump circled back to the subject later in the speech, said the word correctly, addressed his wife by name again and noted that he had gotten it right. He also passed along her greetings to the crowd.
The White House Rapid Response account posted the video of Trump saying his wife calls him “sir.” Users on X questioned whether the first lady really addresses her husband that way.
A Fight Over Barbecue
Paxton is trailing Talarico in recent polling. Trump had worked “vaygan” into a riff about Talarico at an earlier rally, and he has taken other shots at the Democrat’s diet at the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas and aboard Air Force One.
Talarico set off the attack line when he told the Texas Humane Legislation Network that eating less meat was an existential piece of the fight against climate change. Trump, along with Paxton’s campaign, insists the Democrat secretly avoids animal products. Paxton and Trump have mocked him with nicknames, including “Talafreako.”
Talarico has repeatedly denied being vegan or vegetarian, and his campaign has circulated images of him eating barbecue and turkey. Talarico has said: “I’m an eighth-generation Texan. I’ve been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment,”
At the rally, Trump claimed without evidence that the Democrat was making himself go to barbecues for political reasons, that the meat was making him sick and that he had vanished from public view because of it. A diagnosis of the flu has kept Talarico away from the campaign trail since late September, according to reports.
Deputies Seek Witnesses
The rally drew an unusual number of protesters. Deputies escorted 18 people out and made no arrests, and they issued two criminal trespass warnings.
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office released a flyer Monday, Oct. 12, with images of people investigators are seeking to identify in connection with incidents at the Oct. 7 rally. The office urged anyone who believes they were the victim of a crime to come forward.
A man grabbed a protester who had booed the president, according to CBS News.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said in a statement: “Thankfully, there were no major incidents at the rally last week.”
A Tight Senate Race
A Fox News poll released Oct. 2 put the Democrat ahead 51 percent to 49 percent. A New York Times/Siena poll conducted Sept. 21-30 put Talarico ahead 49 percent to 43 percent.
If he holds on, Talarico would be the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Texas since Lloyd Bentsen was re-elected to a fourth term in 1988.
The visit was Trump’s fourth to Texas in six weeks. Kamala Harris carried the surrounding Bexar County with 54.9 percent of the vote in 2024.
Paxton campaign ads have questioned Talarico’s testosterone and resurfaced an old clip of him describing God as non-binary. Talarico has brushed the attacks aside as a distraction from Republican corruption.
Trump called for a public debate between the two candidates. Paxton has resisted earlier debate calls. Talarico replied on X to Trump’s debate call: “Ball’s in your court [Ken Paxton].”
Talarico is scheduled for a CNN town hall Oct. 14 in Texas. Early voting in Texas starts Oct. 19.