President Donald Trump attracts members of his devoted MAGA following and, apparently, insects, too.
The 80-year-old Republican president has encountered flying bugs on multiple occasions while delivering televised remarks.
The most recent incident happened during a campaign rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Oct. 14.
Trump visited the state to rally support for Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections. His stop in Arizona was part of an ongoing nationwide campaign blitz.
Rallygoers heard Trump deliver his familiar, divisive stump speech, a fixture of his public persona for the past decade. But one moment during his appearance stood out for an unexpected reason.
The polarizing GOP provocateur began his common rant about women’s sports before being distracted by an unwanted visitor.
More than an hour into the speech, Trump threw a fit, smacking the microphone in front of him.
“I hate flies. I don’t like flies,” he blurted out. “What the hell did they put on this thing? It’s attracting flies.”
Some audience members chuckled as Trump went on a mini-rant, waving his right hand in the air. He then took his frustrations out on the rally organizers, sarcastically complaining, “Good job, fellas. I appreciate it. Don’t pay your bill. Don’t pay the bill. No, I hate flies.”
The MAGA hat-wearing audience responded with more soft laughter. Trump’s follow-up joke about losing animal rights activists’ votes was also met with a mostly quiet reaction.
In contrast, Trump nearly melting down in front of the world sparked plenty of online trolling. Critics took the opportunity to mercilessly mock the GOP firebrand.
A fly near the aging POTUS inspired one-liners, including a Threads poster sarcastically asking, “Who’s gonna tell him?”
That tongue-in-cheek question did not go unanswered. Additional commenters offered their thoughts on Trump’s latest skirmish with an insect.
“Flies are attracted to things that are rotten — typically trash,” read one post on Threads. Another person wrote, “If it’s not [him] attracting flies, it must be his foul mouth.
Considering Trump has a history of allegedly not paying his bills, his punchline about stiffing the technicians who set up the microphone garnered attention as well.
“He automatically thinks someone has sabotaged him because that’s his modus operandi,” a Threads poster stated. Another poster added, “He wasn’t going to pay anyway.”
Trump may have pointed the finger at the technical staff for his mid-speech distraction. But earlier fly-related disturbances suggest the mic wasn’t the problem.
Back in 2023, Trump ranted about invading flies during a speech in Iowa. The following year, he swatted at what he called a “very aggressive sucker” during a rally in Wisconsin.
The commander in chief had another run-in with an insect during a news conference at the G7 summit in France in June, when a fly landed on his signature blond comb-over.
At one point, Trump forcefully slammed his hand on the podium. He looked up from his written script to say, “I want to get that little sucker. But I missed. I hate missing.”
Flies have repeatedly seemed drawn to the billionaire Mar-a-Lago resort owner no matter where he is on the planet, creating embarrassing images for him.
Even Trump’s National Golf Club in Virginia had to deal with a “large quantity of small flies,” according to a health inspection report from June 2026.
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