{"id":2911,"date":"2024-10-15T19:17:29","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T19:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/trumps-bizarre-music-session-reignites-questions-about-his-mental-acuity\/"},"modified":"2024-10-15T19:17:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T19:17:29","slug":"trumps-bizarre-music-session-reignites-questions-about-his-mental-acuity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/hi\/trumps-bizarre-music-session-reignites-questions-about-his-mental-acuity\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s bizarre music session reignites questions about his mental acuity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Donald Trump\u2019s campaign wants its candidate to talk more about policy, but on Monday night it was all about the music.<\/p>\n

Trump was in Oaks, Pennsylvania, to host the type of town hall event his advisers hope will keep the former president on track talking both about his policy positions and those of his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. But the evening quickly took a bizarre turn<\/a> after two rallygoers had medical issues.<\/p>\n

Rather than continue after paramedics assisted the two people, Trump instructed his staff to just play music from a playlist he has personally curated and famously often turns on during dinners at Mar-a-Lago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho the hell wants to hear questions?\u201d Trump said at the event where the entire point was to take audience questions. \u201cRight?\u201d<\/p>\n

What followed was more than 30 minutes of Trump swaying on stage and occasionally doing his well-known two-handed dance to some of his favorite tunes, chatting with the event’s host, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, and occasionally interacting with attendees who were seated behind the stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the weirdest church service I have ever been to,\u201d a first-time rallygoer who did not give their name told NBC News of the music portion of the event, which opened with \u201cAve Maria.\u201d<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, Trump supporters in attendance said they enjoyed the moment and saw it as a chance to connect with their preferred candidate for president.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved it,\u201d said Jay Bauer, who was in attendance from Montgomery County. \u201cI felt like I was sitting in a room with him. Just him. I could have been here another hour, another two hours. I was just great spending time with the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bauer\u2019s wife, Janice Bauer, said she expected him to \u201ctake more questions,\u201d but her opinion of Trump has not changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he would talk longer,\u201d she said. \u201cHowever, I still will vote for him. I think he\u2019s a very good candidate \u2026 the concert was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only did the unorthodox event come just weeks ahead of Election Day in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, but it also came at a time when Democrats have tried to increasingly turn the attention to Trump\u2019s mental acuity and the 78-year-old’s fitness to serve as president.<\/p>\n

“Voters are just starting to tune in, and objectively they are seeing a diminished Trump, one who rambles for hours at end, makes no sense, freezes for 30 minutes and forces people to listen to his Spotify playlist. It\u2019s bizarre and raises more and more concerns for voters,” said a Harris campaign adviser who also previously worked for President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Harris released a summary of her medical history<\/a>, using the moment to imply that Trump was not up to the task because he has so far refused to release his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne must question \u2026 are they afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable to lead America,\u201d she said. \u201cIs that what\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris appeared to double down on that sentiment after Trump\u2019s town hall, writing on social media, “Hope he’s okay<\/a>,” with a post from her campaign that noted that Trump looked \u201clost, confused and frozen on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions about Biden\u2019s mental acuity, especially after his disastrous debate performance in June, ultimately forced the 81-year-old out of the race<\/a>. Democrats are now increasingly trying to flip that script on Trump, who would be the oldest person elected president if he wins in November.<\/p>\n

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, took a more direct approach, calling the incident \u201cnot small.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows that he is increasingly detached from reality,\u201d Schatz posted<\/a>. \u201cEveryone knows if Biden or Harris did that it would be media mayhem. He\u2019s not ok, and you can\u2019t ignore it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a social media post overnight, Trump called Harris’ request for him to release his medical records “desperate.”<\/p>\n

“She is dying to see my Cholesterol (which is 180!), I have already provided them, many times, including quite recently, and they were flawless,” Trump wrote<\/a> at 12:43 a.m. Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Trump has not released<\/a> his medical records while running for president this cycle.<\/p>\n

His campaign said that not only was there no issue with Trump during the town hall, but also that the music-filled moment showed a connection with his supporters that is so strong it\u2019s what prompted people to faint.<\/p>\n

\u201cTotal lovefest at the PA townhall!\u201d Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman, posted<\/a> on social media Monday night. \u201cNobody wanted to leave and wanted to hear more songs from the famous DJT Spotify playlist!\u201d<\/p>\n

An official statement from the campaign came a short time later, proactively pushing back on what it assumed would be the idea that the listening session was any indication of Trump slipping mentally.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump has more energy and more stamina than anyone in politics, and is the smartest leader this country has ever seen,\u201d the statement read. \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<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Cheung told NBC News that the listening session came \u201cout of respect for those who fainted at the event because they were so excited to see President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made the decision to entertain the crowd with music and everyone loved it,\u201d Cheung said.<\/p>\n

A person close to the campaign reiterated that the staff loved the event.<\/p>\n

“Just the president enjoying a moment with the supporters,” the person said. “I think he’s just taking it all in. We feel good about where the numbers are. He knows that this is the last stretch of his final run.”<\/p>\n

Once it was clear that Trump wanted to listen to music, campaign staff behind the scenes started to scramble to accommodate the request. A campaign staffer would write on a piece of paper the songs they knew Trump would want to hear and give it to the audio person, who would play the music, according to a source familiar with the evening.<\/p>\n

The town hall led to Trump being late for a tele-rally with Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick. Trump jumped onto an administrative line set up for staff shortly before the call was set to begin, and when told he was 45 minutes late told those on the line, “I just listened to music with these people and it was great. OK, let\u2019s get started,\u201d according to a person on the call.<\/p>\n

Another person familiar with the event told NBC News they understand the appearance of awkwardness as the event transformed from a town hall to a music-listening session, but that was due to a miscommunication with Noem after the medical issues. From the stage, she tried to end the event even as Trump wanted to take two more questions \u2014 something that did not happen because of the miscommunication; Trump then just allowed the music to continue to play, the source said.<\/p>\n

One day after the event, attendee Cecilia Harkness told NBC News that she enjoyed the Trump-led music fest, and said she would have no criticism if Harris had been put in the same situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t care if there was a situation that warranted it, such as what happened last night,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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

Donald Trump\u2019s campaign wants its candidate to talk more about policy, but on Monday night it was all about the music. Trump was in Oaks, Pennsylvania, to host the type of town hall event his advisers hope will keep the former president on track talking both about his policy positions and those of his opponent<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2911","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\/x4pIP3BdN15gPiaS.8rdxQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD04MDE-\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/666849558ba2f165c72c4523a127965e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}