NYT flags crowd 'emptying out' of Trump speech just 45 minutes in

President Donald Trump's Saturday rally in Ohio started losing its crowd before he finished speaking, according to a New York Times White House reporter who was in the room.

"Upper level of this rally is emptying out about 45 minutes after the president started speaking in Ohio," Times reporter Katie Rogers wrote on X.

Her video, shot from the floor of the high school gym in Vandalia, shows Trump at the podium in front of a packed floor of supporters, many wearing red hats. In the upper level, people are on their feet and moving toward the exits, and parts of the balcony have already cleared.

Rogers' clip shows Trump in the middle of a riff on prices, saying "nearly one billion households were massively overcharged."

The Vandalia event was one of several rallies Trump has held this fall in states he won comfortably in 2024. At that same event, a protester interrupted the president's speech by shouting about the jury verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll, before being escorted out.

The night before in Mobile, Alabama, MS NOW host Jen Psaki said Trump "couldn't even fill half the seats" in an arena that holds 10,000 people.

Ohio has become a worry for Republicans this cycle. Recent polls, including a New York Times/Siena survey, show Democrat Sherrod Brown narrowly ahead of Sen. Jon Husted in the state's Senate race.