Trump Offers Bizarre Reaction To Heckler Shouting 'Pedophile Protector' At Him During Rally

President Donald Trump was criticized after calling a heckler a "communist" after they shouted "pedophile protector" at him while he was speaking in Milford, Michigan, on Monday.

Trump was talking about "placing tariffs on foreign producers" when the heckler yelled "pedophile protector" at him multiple times. His followers attempted to drown out the heckler by chanting "USA! USA! USA!"

Trump then acknowledged the heckler but did not address the accusation directly when he said:

"He's a communist. He's a communist. He's a communist. We're running against communists."

You can watch what happened in the video below.

The "pedophile protector" chant is a reference to Trump's former friend and associate, the late financier and convicted pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The two men were best friends for well over a decade and often socialized at events between New York and Florida. They had a falling out sometime around 2004, per Trump's account, and there is little record of the two men meeting after that.

But the relationship has come under heightened scrutiny as the Epstein files—in which Trump is mentioned 38,000 times—continue to keep the Trump administration in a bind the more Trump and his officials push back against their release.

Earlier this year, TJ Sabula, a United Auto Workers Local 600 line worker at a Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, was suspended after he heckled Trump, calling him a "pedophile protector" during Trump's appearance there.

Sabula, who identifies as politically independent, said he has never voted for Trump but has backed other Republicans. He estimated he was about 60 feet from Trump and said the president could hear him “very, very, very clearly.” Two GoFundMe campaigns started after Sabula was suspended from his job raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Trump's reaction sparked renewed criticism.

The footage of Trump's response comes as he has dramatically intensified his warnings about the alleged threat of communism in recent weeks.

A Reuters analysis found that Trump's political team is testing whether the message can appeal beyond his core supporters ahead of November's midterm elections. According to the analysis, Trump's rhetoric accelerated after June 23, when several progressive Democratic candidates won primary elections in New York.

Since then, he has invoked communism 81 times in speeches and social media posts, at one point labeling some of the victorious candidates "hardcore, godless communists."

During his July Fourth address commemorating the nation's semiquincentennial, Trump likened communism to a cancer that must be removed, telling supporters gathered on the National Mall, "You've got to cut it out, and you've got to cut it out fast."