NEWSWEEK
Some attendees at a Donald Trump town hall event on Monday reportedly began leaving early after the Republican presidential nominee decided to stop taking questions from the audience and instead played music for 39 minutes.
The former president attended the town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, moderated by South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Proceedings were paused while two attendees received medical attention, at which point Trump jokingly asked whether “anybody else would like to faint?” He then 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?”
The incident took place after Kamala Harris questioned Trump’s mental cognizance at a rally in Pennsylvania on Monday, branding her White House rival “unstable” and “unhinged.” In July, President Joe Biden announced he was stepping down from the 2024 presidential contest amid concern about his age and mental capabilities.
According to The Washington Post, “some in the crowd began to leave” after Trump said he wouldn’t be taking any more questions at the town hall, and instead told his team to play a succession of nine songs as he at times danced on stage.
The songs played included ‘An American Trilogy’ by Elvis Presley, ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ from Sinéad O’Connor, the Village People’s iconic ‘YMCA’ and ‘Memory’ from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats.
Newsweek contacted Trump’s campaign for comment via email on Tuesday outside of regular office hours.
Posting about the event on X, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said: “Total lovefest at the PA townhall! Everyone was so excited they were fainting so @realDonaldTrump turned to music.
“Nobody wanted to leave and wanted to hear more songs from the famous DJT Spotify playlist!”
However other commentators were more critical on X, including independent journalist Aaron Rupar who posted: “Wow — this was weird. Trump wrapped up his “town hall” in Oaks, Pennsylvania, after just a few questions, and right after he said he would take a few more questions. More music then played while Trump stood around on stage. Deeply bizarre scenes.”
Ron Filipkowski, who edits self-styled “pro-democracy” media outlet MeidasTouch, added: “This is absolutely insane. Trump just froze up answering questions, said he wouldn’t take anymore questions, then stood on stage for the next 30 minutes while music played. Will media cover this as something other than a seriously bizarre cognitive episode???”
Harris urged Trump, who if elected in November will be the oldest inaugurated president in U.S. history, to release his medical records during a rally on Sunday.
She said: “He refuses to release his medical records. I’ve done it. Every other presidential candidate in the modern era has done it.”
It came after Harris released a two page medical summary that concluded she could “successfully execute the duties” of president if elected next month.
On Saturday, some Trump supporters were reportedly left stranded following a rally hosted by the Republican nominee in California’s Coachella Valley after insufficient buses were available to take them back to their cars.
But, in better news for Trump, a recent Fox News national survey found the former president could receive over three times the vote share among Black voters that he received at the 2020 election.
