--- title: Bat Flies Around Trump MAGA Rally Just in Time for Halloween description: A rogue bat flew around the President Donald Trump MAGA rally in Johnson Tennessee just in time for Halloween. canonical: https://time.com/5412108/bat-trump-rally/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-01T21:49:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T17:17:32.000Z og:title: A Bat Flew Around Trump's Rally to Announce Halloween og:description: It's October 1st so there's a bat flying around the Trump rally og:url: https://time.com/5412108/bat-trump-rally/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt031186aeea146288/69893b97096a9481826a3969/batattrumprally.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5628 og:image:height: 3166 og:image:alt: A Maldivian flying fox soars under clear blue sky og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Bat Flew Around Trump's Rally to Announce Halloween twitter:description: It's October 1st so there's a bat flying around the Trump rally twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt031186aeea146288/69893b97096a9481826a3969/batattrumprally.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Rogue Bat Flapped Around Trump's Rally to Announce Halloween Season to Everyone > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=5e6038c8-4668-436d-a59f-f0403f03efdc&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Updated: Dec 12, 2023 5:17 PM UTCPublished: Oct 1, 2018 9:49 PM UTC  A Maldivian flying fox (Pteropus hypomelanus maris) soars under blue sky A Maldivian flying fox (Pteropus hypomelanus maris) soars under blue sky Sirachai Arunrugstichai—Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Updated: Dec 12, 2023 5:17 PM UTCPublished: Oct 1, 2018 9:49 PM UTC As crowds gathered for [President Donald Trump’s rally](http://time.com/5411444/nafta-trump-deal-usmca/) Monday night, one animal seemed to officially usher in the start of October. Before the real action began, what appears to be a [bat](http://time.com/4827511/bats-viruses-diseases-pandemic/) flapped its wings around Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tennessee. Perhaps out of their element, security had the difficult task of trying to contain the nocturnal animal. For those inside the event, the bat making its presence known was a true first for unexpected guests at political events. In the midst of a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico and a brief FBI probe into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the bat may have emerged to distract quite a few people. Of course, Twitter was aflutter with hot bat takes. The bat may have been right on time. After all, it was the first day of October, and bats are often associated with Halloween. > [](https://twitter.com/marcusdipaola/status/1046868643542441991) > [](https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1046869064210092034) > [](https://twitter.com/thejoemoore/status/1046874913456476160) > [](https://twitter.com/michaelwhitney/status/1046870282709946369) > [](https://twitter.com/kwelkernbc/status/1046869761076973568) This it the latest example of an animal wandering into a big event. Just recently, a [possum](http://time.com/5403090/cleveland-browns-fan-catches-possum/) on a power trip recently wandered the stands at a Cleveland Browns game, effectively urging the team to its victory over the New York Jets. According to reporter Marcus DiPaola, the bat was captured safely. > [](https://twitter.com/marcusdipaola/status/1046884500490395648) > [](https://twitter.com/marcusdipaola/status/1046884794288750592) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5412108/bat-trump-rally/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5412108/bat-trump-rally/"},"headline":"A Rogue Bat Flapped Around Trump's Rally to Announce Halloween Season to Everyone","datePublished":"2018-10-01T21:49:44.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T17:17:32.000Z","description":"A rogue bat flew around the President Donald Trump MAGA rally in Johnson Tennessee just in time for Halloween.","url":"https://time.com/5412108/bat-trump-rally/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt031186aeea146288/69893b97096a9481826a3969/batattrumprally.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt031186aeea146288/69893b97096a9481826a3969/batattrumprally.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A Maldivian flying fox soars under clear blue sky","caption":"A bat flies into the Trump rally","creditText":"Sirachai Arunrugstichai—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5412108/bat-trump-rally/","name":"A Rogue Bat Flapped Around Trump's Rally to Announce Halloween Season to Everyone"}}]}] ```