President Donald Trump was forced to pause his speech just minutes after taking the stage at a midterm campaign rally in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, when a protester began singing a song about Jeffrey Epstein from the crowd. The interruption, captured on video and shared widely on social media, marked the third consecutive night that a Trump rally was disrupted by protesters raising the Epstein issue.
The protester, later identified as Rob Potylo—a musical comedian and activist who performs under the name Robby Roadsteamer—stood up shortly after Trump began his remarks at the Shoemaker Center on Ohio University’s Chillicothe campus and sang, “Trump went on the Jeffrey Epstein plane!” to the tune of the Village People’s “YMCA”. The crowd responded with loud boos as security personnel moved in to remove him from the venue.
Who Is the Protester Behind the Epstein Song
Rob Potylo, known online as Robby Roadsteamer, is a Boston-based musical comedian and political activist who has built a following by trolling Trump allies and creating anti-Trump parody songs. He has previously heckled former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and has released a YouTube song titled “Jeffrey Epstein Plane” referencing the financier’s private aircraft.
Potylo told HuffPost that he shaved his beard for the first time in 20 years before the rally, hoping security and Trump supporters would not recognize him. He said he deliberately chose to interrupt early in the speech to avoid sitting through the entire event. “I don’t want to fucking listen to him,” Potylo said. “I usually try—and also I got Charlie Kirk—and all three of them. It’s like I’m not sitting around for this. They’re all within the first five minutes of their speeches”.
After being escorted out, Potylo posted the uncut footage on X, writing: “Singing The Epstein Plane to Trump at his rally tonite! The raw footage. With the cops pulling me out! (Uncut)”. In the video, he is heard shouting “No political violence! We’re all buddies!” as officers walked him out.
Trump Calls Heckler a Paid Protester and Denies Epstein Ties
Trump stopped his remarks and turned toward the protester as the crowd booed, then told the audience that the man had been paid to disrupt the event. “You know, there’s a guy, not a young guy. They gave him $250. Paid protesters,” Trump said, without providing evidence.
The president then addressed the Epstein reference directly. “He mentioned Epstein. So, I threw Jeffrey Epstein out of a club like 20 years ago ’cause I thought he was a whack job. By the way, that was a great thing I did,” Trump said. He went on to claim that Epstein “never came up with me” and that the financier was associated with Democrats. “You know who he came up with? All of the friends of the Democrats. He was a Democrat. I was the one that was totally exonerated from him,” Trump added.
Potylo later said he made far more than $250 in donations after the video went viral on social media. The White House has maintained that Trump has been “totally exonerated” on anything relating to Epstein. White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement that Trump “has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him” by releasing documents, cooperating with congressional subpoenas, and signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Three Hecklers Removed in Minutes as Crowd Boos
The Epstein song was not the only disruption of the evening. At least three protesters were escorted from the venue within minutes of Trump taking the stage. A second heckler interrupted shortly after Potylo was removed, and a third was also ejected.
Video footage showed Potylo raising his middle finger as two security guards attempted to pull him from the stands, with a larger bystander briefly getting involved before officers completed the removal. The crowd drowned out the protester with chants of “USA! USA! USA!” as he was walked out. An officer was heard telling Potylo he was “uninvited” from the event, to which he responded by asking why and saying he was “singing hit songs”.
Potylo told HuffPost that during the removal, “one of the fucking shit-clowns knocked my phone out of my hand,” and he had to grab it from under a bench because supporters were not going to let him keep it.
Why Epstein Keeps Coming Up at Trump Rallies
The protest unfolded against the backdrop of renewed attention to Trump’s past association with Epstein, the financier who died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Records released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act listed Trump as a passenger on Epstein’s private plane at least eight times between 1993 and 1996, according to an email from a federal prosecutor cited in reporting.
A New York Times analysis of the latest batch of Epstein-related records found more than 5,300 files containing over 38,000 mentions of Trump, his wife, his Mar-a-Lago resort, and related terms. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said in February that Trump’s name appeared in unredacted versions of the Epstein files “more than a million times”.
Days before the Ohio rally, House Judiciary Committee Democrats released a report calling for an independent special counsel to investigate Trump’s relationship with Epstein. The White House has dismissed the report as “a desperate attempt by crazed Democrats to distract Americans from the surging Republican momentum driven by President Trump’s historic achievements”. Trump has never been charged with any crime connected to Epstein and has consistently denied wrongdoing.
A Rally Meant to Boost Ohio Republicans
The Chillicothe event was part of Trump’s midterm campaign blitz ahead of the November 3 elections, with control of Congress at stake. Trump was stumping for Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), who is facing former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) in a race rated a “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report, and for Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running against Democrat Amy Acton.
The Shoemaker Center rally drew more than 3,000 people inside the venue, with hundreds more watching from screens outside. Trump spoke for nearly two hours, mixing his endorsement pitch with familiar attacks on the news media and Democrats. The small size of the arena—NBC News’ Garrett Haake noted he could not recall Trump ever holding a rally in a room so small—made the protester’s outburst particularly audible during the televised broadcast.
Social Media Spreads the Confrontation
Potylo’s video spread quickly across X and other platforms, with users sharing clips of the confrontation and the president’s response. The heckler’s song referenced Epstein’s private plane, often called the “Lolita Express” in media reports, which was used to fly guests to Epstein’s island.
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The Epstein issue has become a recurring theme at Trump’s recent rallies. At a Mississippi rally on Monday, a protester shouted at Trump to “shove that ballroom up your fat a**,” prompting the president to call the man a paid protester. Trump was also reportedly heckled at least nine times during a South Carolina rally the previous week. The Chillicothe disruption was the third straight night a Trump rally was interrupted by Epstein-related protests.
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