Daniel Wolfram
The president was impressed after the Mississippi Democrat made political history by talking directly to voters at a Trump rally.
Something very unusual occurred yesterday.
President Donald Trump, a man known for holding grudges and not giving any credit to his perceived enemies, just went out of his way to compliment a politician from the other side of the aisle.
A predictable path
The compliment comes after Democrat Scott Colom pulled off one of the biggest upsets in modern American politics and won the Senate seat in Mississippi after beating out incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.
It is the first time since 1982 and the first time since the Reconstruction era back in the late 1800s that the state has elected an African American as Senator.
The upset caught everyone off guard, including Trump, who spoke with ESPN’s sports analyst and TV personality Stephen A. Smith at the White House on Thursday.
“I don’t know the gentleman, but I give him credit,” Trump said, according to The Hill.
Working the line
The praise stems from a bold move Colom made before the election. He showed up at a Trump rally in Corinth, Mississippi.
There, Colom walked up to the MAGA crowd. He asked people waiting in line what actually mattered to them.
Supporters mentioned high prices. Some also openly disagreed with Trump over tariffs and the war in Iran, The Hill reported.
Trump noticed the clever tactic. “I had a rally there, and we had lines that went 10 miles long, and he campaigned on that line, telling everybody in the line what a good job he did. I give him a lot of credit for that.”
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Making political history
That video quickly caught fire online. By Thursday night, it had racked up huge numbers on Facebook and Instagram.
Colom achieved something remarkable. He became the first Black senator elected by popular vote in Mississippi.
The state has a massive Black population. Despite this, its only other Black senators were elected by the state legislature during the Reconstruction era.
The two candidates also share a bitter past. In 2023, Hyde-Smith blocked Colom from a federal judge confirmation hearing. Now Colom has returned the favor.
