Yesterday night, former President Donald Trump abruptly ended a town hall event in Oaks, Pennsylvania after just one hour and four questions. He then spent the next 39 minutes mostly swaying onstage while music played.
His behavior somewhat bewildered media pundits — it also seemed to confuse his Q&A moderator, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) who mostly just walked around stage, applauded near the end of each song, and occasionally danced alongside Trump.
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“Tonight, Donald Trump: Told his supporters to go out and vote on ‘January 5th,’ Rambled about Hannibal Lecter, a cannibal serial killer who is not real, Acted confused when asked if they should end the event and play a walk-off song, [and] Stood frozen and silent on stage as music played for 30+ minutes and the crowd poured out of the venue,” the campaign for Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, wrote on its Kamala HQ X account.
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In a follow-up tweet with video footage of the incident, the Harris campaign wrote, “Trump appears lost, confused, and frozen on stage as multiple songs play for 30+ minutes and the crowd pours out of the venue early.”
Harris herself reposted the campaign’s message, adding, “Hope he’s okay.” In recent days, she has repeatedly called the 78-year-old Republican presidential candidate “unstable” and questioned his mental acuity.
Former Trump communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin told The View on Tuesday morning, “I saw this [footage of the event] last night. I thought it was a deepfake.” She added, “I could joke about it all day, but this is serious. This is not even the man I worked for, who had all sorts of problems. There’s a decline, and I worry the history books might say everyone was quick to call out Joe Biden’s age and issues, but we missed that someone else is just flying under the radar, clearly in decline.”
The Atlantic‘s article about the incident stated, “Trump Breaks Down Onstage” adding, “At a campaign event last night, Trump got bored—and weirdness ensued.”
“Trump’s rally last night would force any reasonable person to conclude that he is not up to the grueling task of leading the world’s greatest nation, handling economic crises or dealing with foreign adversaries,” Atlantic staff write David A. Graham reported. “Which isn’t to say that some people didn’t try to reason through it. Reporters still seem unsure of how to deal with Trump’s stranger behaviors. Journalists are trained to take information and make sense of it, even amid chaos. The problem is that doing so conjures logic where none exists.”
The Washington Post‘s headline of the event described it as “bizarre” and noted that two attendees fainted and required medical attention before Trump quickly ended the Q&A portion of the event.
After jokingly asking whether “anybody else would like to faint,” Trump said, “Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into a music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?”
Trump’s curated playlist of rally songs also included two gay songs: The Village People’s YMCA and Rufus Wainwright’s cover of Hallelujah — Wainwright has called Trump playing the song “The height of blasphemy.”
In a public Facebook message, Wainwright wrote, “[Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah” has] become an anthem dedicated to peace, love and acceptance of the truth. I’ve been supremely honored over the years to be connected with this ode to tolerance. Witnessing Trump and his supporters commune with this music last night was the height of blasphemy.”
“Of course, I in no way condone this and was mortified,” Wainwright continued, “but the good in me hopes that perhaps in inhabiting and really listening to the lyrics of Cohen’s masterpiece, Donald Trump just might experience a hint of remorse over what he’s caused. I’m not holding my breath.”
He then said that he is “all in” for Harris to win the presidency.
Journalist Matthew Remski offered an alternate take on Trump’s behavior, writing in a thread on X, “Trump surrendering tonight’s Q&A to 30 minutes of his fave songs while standing on stage, awkwardly conducting at times, echoes MANY instances of cultic leaders who, exhausted, ill, and at the end of their cognitive rope, outsource their emotional dominance subroutines to canned music they personally find exquisitely sentimental.”
“As traumatized narcissists, they are seeking comfort and avoiding work, but also assume that their core memories of pleasure will make their power and soul transparent and accessible to their followers,” Remski continued. “There are people in the crowd who are uncomfortable, or who can recognize the signs, or who get bored and leave early. But for those really caught up, that 30 minutes of music and reverie might feel like the most direct and intimate contact they’ve ever had with him.”
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