The end of opposition outrage Donald Trump's rabble-rousing demagogy turned to bewilderment after the GOP nominee spent 40 minutes swaying to his favorite songs during a rally near Philadelphia, prompting Kamala Harris to express apparent concern about his mental state.
“I hope he's OK,” Harris, the U.S. vice president and Democratic candidate, posted on social media footage accompanying the performance that many observers said was bizarre even by Trump's standards.
An ad hoc music festival in the Pennsylvania suburb of Oaks happened after two audience members at a rally at the arena fainted, possibly due to the heat.
When Trump asked for air conditioning, the event's moderator, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, tried to keep it strictly political, making joking references to high inflation. “They probably can't afford it, sir, in this economy,” she said.
Trump then decided to change tactics.
“Let's not ask any more questions. Let's just listen to the music. Let's turn it into music. Who the hell wants to listen to questions, right? he said.
A nine-song playlist was created, featuring standard Trump rally favorites such as James Brown's “It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World,” Village People's YMCA, Sinead O'Connor's “Nothing Compares 2 U” and Sinead O'Connor's “Ave Maria” performed by Luciano Pavarotti. played while the candidate stood mid-stage, swaying or gently bouncing on his or her heels, and Noem joined in to mimic his movements.
Finally, Trump concluded: “These two people who died are patriots. We love them. And thanks to them we made great music, right?”
The resort to music instead of angry, provocative rhetoric was not without irony. A long list of musical artists – including Celine Dion, Abba, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen – have condemned or taken legal action to stop the Trump campaign from playing their songs at rallies.
The event also came as Harris urged the media and voters to pay special attention to much darker topics that appear more frequently at Trump rallies to illustrate the threat to freedom she believes he would pose if he returned to the White House .
At his own rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Monday, Harris took the unusual step of playing footage from Trump rallies in which he denounced opponents as the “enemy within,” saying it showed him as “unstable and unbalanced.”
“He considers anyone who does not support him or does not bend to his will an enemy of our country,” Harris said after a fragment of the comment was played on a huge screen. “That's one of the reasons I believe so strongly that a second Trump term would be a huge risk and dangerous for America.”
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Trump's break recalled the days of his relative youth in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was a regular at New York's Studio 54 nightclub and rubbed shoulders with stars such as Mick Jagger and Diana Ross. Despite the former president's professed enthusiasm for vintage hits, the venue's founder told the Guardian in 2018 that he had never seen Trump dancing while he was at the club.
Trump's staff portrayed the episode as a joyous “love fest” – perhaps subconsciously trying to emulate the “joy” theme that Harris announced in the early stages of her campaign.
“A total love fest at PA City Hall! Everyone was so excited they fainted, so @realDonaldTrump turned on the music,” Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, wrote on X. “No one wanted to go out and wanted to listen to more songs from the famous DJT Spotify playlist!”
Karoline Leavitt, another spokeswoman, wrote simply: “DJ Trump.”
Other social media users were less impressed. “Donald Trump is not feeling well,” wrote one. “He finished his work at City Hall early and then stood awkwardly on stage for almost 30 minutes while random music played over the sound system.” Another called it “absolutely CRAZY.” This was supposed to be the town hall.”
