{"id":2907,"date":"2024-10-15T15:17:34","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T15:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/trump-turns-political-event-into-surreal-listening-party\/"},"modified":"2024-10-15T15:17:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T15:17:34","slug":"trump-turns-political-event-into-surreal-listening-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es_es\/trump-turns-political-event-into-surreal-listening-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump turns political event into surreal listening party"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Former President Donald Trump<\/a> turned a town hall event in front of supporters in Oaks, Pennsylvania, into an impromptu listening party Monday night, playing an unlikely selection of tunes for nearly 40 minutes after the event was paused for medical emergencies.<\/p>\n

Trump is famed for his lengthy and unorthodox political rallies, but none have followed such an unusual format, featuring the Republican nominee swaying along and occasionally punching the air to songs including the Village People\u2019s \u201cYMCA,\u201d Sinead O\u2019Connor\u2019s \u201cNothing Compares 2 U\u201d and \u201cMemory,\u201d from the musical \u201cCats.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event was meant to be a Q&A focused on Trump\u2019s policy platform, but during a pause while two people received medical attention, Trump told the crowd: \u201cLet\u2019s not do any more questions. Let\u2019s just listen to music. Let\u2019s make it into our music. Who the hell wants to hear questions? Right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris said on her campaign\u2019s X account<\/a> that Trump rambled and \u201clooked confused\u201d on stage during the event.<\/p>\n

Republican campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said on X<\/a> the event showed \u201csomething special\u201d was happening. \u201c@realDonaldTrump is unlike any politician in history, and it\u2019s great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Follow live updates on the 2024 election<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Almost a half hour into the town hall event, Trump paused the event so someone in the audience could receive treatment. He praised the person as a \u201cgreat patriot\u201d and thanked the first responders.<\/p>\n

During the lull, the crowd began to sing \u201cGod Bless America,\u201d and then Trump asked his team if the loudspeakers could play \u201cAve Maria,\u201d telling the crowd that he also played this at a rally earlier this month in Butler, Pennsylvania<\/a>, in tribute to Corey Comperatore, the firefighter who was killed during an attempted assassination of Trump at a rally there in July.<\/p>\n

As the person receiving attention was taken away on a stretcher, \u201cAve Maria\u201d began blasting out of the speakers as requested.<\/p>\n

Two minutes later, as Trump faced the fifth question of the night, another person became ill and the song played again.<\/p>\n

After \u201cAve Maria,\u201d sung by Luciano Pavarotti, had been played for a third time, the event then became more like a barroom karaoke session than a political event \u2014 albeit without the singing.<\/p>\n

Then followed nine more songs, including hits by Elvis Presley, James Brown and Guns N\u2019 Roses. Trump stood on stage throughout, swaying gently to the music and occasionally mouthing the words, before clapping and pointing at the audience after each track. The Trump campaign said 5,000 to 6,000 supporters were at the event.<\/p>\n

There appeared to be some confusion over whether and when the event was ending. At one point Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota asked Trump on stage, \u201cDo you want to play your song and then greet a few people?\u201d<\/p>\n

He replied: \u201cHow about a couple of really beauties, and we\u2019ll sit down and relax,\u201d before launching into an attack on Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden and stressing the importance of winning Pennsylvania next month.<\/p>\n

Trump did not take part in making the \u201cYMCA\u201d letters with his arms, preferring a short dance in between shaking supporters\u2019 hands, although Noem and many in the crowd did.<\/p>\n

Trump asked supporters at another point, \u201cKeep going? Keep going? Should we keep going? All right turn that music up, great song,\u201d before the loudspeakers played Rufus Wainwright\u2019s version of \u201cHallelujah,\u201d a slow and melancholic ballad written by Leonard Cohen.<\/p>\n

The Trump campaign later responded in greater length to the Harris campaign\u2019s assertion that the event showed Trump was \u201cconfused\u201d and \u201cstood frozen and silent on stage as music played for 30+ minutes and the crowd poured out of the venue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said the former president \u201chas more energy and more stamina than anyone in politics, and is the smartest leader this country has ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does multiple public events every single day and the public can see he is sharper and more focused than ever before because the future of America is at stake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump supporter Cecilia Harkness, 68, from Chester County, said she \u201cloved\u201d the songs. \u201cHe\u2019s just a regular guy that cares about the people. That\u2019s the reaction I got. He truly cares about the people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Other supporters were surprised by the event\u2019s unexpected musical medley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my first Trump rally. It was a town hall, and I just think I did expect him to take more questions. I thought he would talk longer,\u201d said Janice Bauer, who is in her 60s and from Montgomery County. \u201cHowever, I still will vote for him. I think he\u2019s a very good candidate. And I \u2014 the concert was great,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

A national NBC News poll on Sunday <\/a>put Trump and Harris neck and neck among registered voters, with three weeks to go until election day.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former President Donald Trump turned a town hall event in front of supporters in Oaks, Pennsylvania, into an impromptu listening party Monday night, playing an unlikely selection of tunes for nearly 40 minutes after the event was paused for medical emergencies. Trump is famed for his lengthy and unorthodox political rallies, but none have followed<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump-election-news"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/UEDLZTGPb7.1o8MpjIB4cg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD04MDA-\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/3726f2d91499521ec62f5bb773a3ae2b","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es_es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es_es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es_es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es_es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es_es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es_es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es_es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es_es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es_es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es_es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}