WASHINGTON — The sun-soaked crowd had been listening to President Donald Trump for just over an hour in Arizona on Wednesday. When some often-used lines about congressional Democrats and taxes got virtually no response, the president decided to go to a dark place.

“They want to mutilate — cut — your children. It’s unbelievable what they do. Six states, I mean, they can do whatever they want — and they do,” Trump said without offering any evidence of a Democratic-run campaign to surgically alter the genitals of children.

Such graphic depictions — however inaccurate — increasingly have become a part of what then-White House press secretary Katie Zacharia on Tuesday labeled Trump’s “midterms blitz.”

“Your son leaves as ‘Jimmy’ and comes back home in three days as ‘Janet,’ and they don’t even ask you,” the head of the Republican Party said, garnering a murmur of boos from the gathered loyalists at an airport in Bullhead City. “They can take your child out of school and do whatever the hell they want. These people are sick. Minnesota is one of those states that can do that.”

Trump’s harsh words and warnings have picked up as polls have increasingly suggested November’s elections could hand Democrats control of the House — and maybe the Senate. One average of a list of recent generic congressional ballot polls gave Democratic candidates an 8-percentage point advantage.

Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia, said in a Thursday email that employing sometimes-dark and sometimes-violent campaign rhetoric “may work at certain times and in certain races — the Democrats probably did that, to some extent, in 2022 — but for the most part, I don’t think it works.”

That’s particularly true, Kondik said, “when the political environment is so bad for the presidential party,” adding: “That said, Republicans are deploying Trump constantly to key states — they must continue to see him as an asset even though his approval is very likely upside down even in states that he won by double digits in 2024.”

In past elections, Trump has turned tough talk into a turn-out-the-vote machine for Republicans, usually when he was on the ballot. But tough doesn’t always mean true.

The independent fact-check group FactCheck.org has called the president’s “mutilization” claims “misleading and wrong.”

“Gender-affirming care is supported by professional medical associations under specific guidance, and surgeries typically take place after age 18. Gender-affirming care is associated with improved mental health, and some medical interventions are reversible,” FactCheck.org wrote in a fact-check piece last year. In an Oct. 12 assessment of GOP ads this cycle, FactCheck.org raised questions about the echoing of Trump’s claims, which it dubbed “flawed.”

Trump’s rough campaign rhetoric always has been aimed at turning out his “Make America Great Again” base at his campaign stops in deep-red areas. Trump used his “weave” speaking style to link his claims about “transgender mutilization” to the Somalia-born Rep. Ilhan Omar, who appears headed to reelection in Minnesota’s 5th District, and other migrants from her state.

“She doesn’t go back, you know, she’s too smart for that. ... They come from countries that have nothing going. They’re not even countries, OK? They don’t have officers. They don’t have anything. They don’t have police. They don’t have military,” he said, exaggerating conditions there. “And then they come over here and they tell us how we should run the United States of America — no, thank you.”

Some in the Arizona crowd booed.

‘Should be shot’

At other times on the trail, he has turned to violent rhetoric.

“But they leaked. Leakers should be, in my opinion, leakers should be shot. They should be shot,” he said at the same Arizona rally while blasting government sources who talked to The New York Times about his military strikes in Iran. “In the old days, we used to shoot leakers.”

Mark Zaid, an attorney who has sued Trump multiple times, wrote on X that his public comments have consequences beyond the voting booth.

“Pres Trump has used this horrific rhetoric before. I know. His fiery language at times stoked fires to encourage death threats against me in 2019 when I (represented) IC Whistleblower who made lawful protected disclosures,” Zaid wrote, using shorthand for the U.S. intelligence community.

The White House referred an inquiry about the president’s intentions with his recent messaging to the Republican National Committee.

“The president is simply highlighting the truth about what Democrats want to do to our nation — mutilate kids’ genitals, release illegal murderers and rapists into our streets, throw Republicans in jail, and elect jihadists with terrorist ties,” RNC National Press Secretary Natalie Baldassare said in a Friday statement. “The reality of these extremists gaining power should scare every American.”

At many campaign stops, Trump also has used dark descriptions of Democrats, contending they cheat in every election.

In Kalispell, Montana, he — again — falsely claimed Democrats “rigged the election” he lost in 2020 to Joe Biden.

“And I did so well, as everyone knows, as everyone knows. You know, they used to get angry when I said it. Now they don’t get angry. They say, ‘Actually, he’s right,’” Trump contended Wednesday night in Big Sky Country. “We won by millions and millions of votes.”

Another independent fact-checking organization, PolitiFact, gives such claims a “pants on fire” rating. “He won in 2016 and 2024. In 2020, Biden won 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232. States certified the results, and Congress accepted the results showing that Biden won,” the organization wrote in a recent analysis.

Even a new White House AI tool Trump himself rolled out at a summit earlier this month with tech sector bigwigs, disagrees with his 2020 claims.

“Official records show Joseph R. Biden Jr. won the 2020 presidential election with 306 electoral votes to Donald J. Trump’s 232. A majority is 270,” America.gov wrote on Sept. 26, the day Trump announced it, when asked if any evidence existed to support Trump’s claims. “Federal officials have not found evidence that vote totals were altered or that the outcome was stolen.”

And when asked about his claims that Democrats cheat in elections, the site responded: “Official sources do not show evidence that ‘Democrats cheat in elections’ as a party, or that Democratic cheating stole a presidential election.”

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