The former president cut his Q&A short and just played music for nearly 40 minutes.
One of former President Trump’s recent campaign events took a strange turn, encouraging critics to question the 78-year-old’s health and mental stamina. On Monday, the presidential hopeful held a town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, but decided to cut it short and play some of his favorite tunes following two medical emergencies in the crowd.
While the decision drew mockery from rival Vice President Kamala Harris, it’s also prompting more legitimate concerns about Trump’s ability to serve if elected president in November.
“Trump’s Pennsylvania town hall raised more serious questions about his age and cognitive capacity than any event to date,” Democratic strategist Laura Fink tells Katie Couric Media. “He was unable to navigate the medical incidents during the town hall — a basic requirement of any live event.”
You could argue that Trump is anything but orthodox — and his campaign hailed the unexpected concert as “very special.” But some believe this was atypical even for him, so we took a closer look at what happened and why.
What happened at Trump’s Pennsylvania town hall?
The town hall, moderated by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, kicked off with Trump fielding questions from the crowd. But things took a bizarre turn about 30 minutes in when an attendee reportedly fainted.
Trump paused his Q&A as the man received medical attention and asked his staff to play one of his favorite songs, “Ave Maria.” After he was taken away, Trump resumed questions but then was interrupted when paramedics were called to help someone else.
“Would anyone else like to faint?” the former president joked. (He claimed on his platform Truth Social the next day that these attendees fainted out of “heat and excitement.”)
But rather than continue the event, Trump decided to start playing songs from his personal playlist interspersed with a few campaign talking points attacking Democrats. “Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?” he said at the time.
For the next 39 minutes, he swayed and bopped to famous tunes, including James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s World” and “Y.M.C.A.” by the Village People. Then came Rufus Wainwright’s cover of “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen and Sinéad O’Connor’s similarly heartfelt “Nothing Compares 2 U.” (Trump’s Catholic supporters probably weren’t too thrilled about that song selection, given the 1992 controversy over O’Connor ripping up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live.) There were some other questionable choices, like Elvis Presley’s rendition of “Dixie,” considered the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Some eventgoers reported enjoying the unexpected music fest, while others were taken off guard. “This is the weirdest church service I have ever been to,” a first-time rallygoer told NBC News.
According to sources familiar with the event, the awkward transition from town hall to music fest was apparently caused by a miscommunication between Trump and Noem.
“Moderator Kristi Noem sounded like the daughter of an elderly father, guiding him with gentle questions and reminding him with the tone of a first-grade teacher that he wanted to close with a specific song or take a few more questions,” says Fink, the founder and CEO of Rebelle Communications. “Instead, he chose to play ballads and sway for more than 30 minutes. Yet, the incidents were papered over in most national coverage.”
New questions about Trump’s health
While medical emergencies at campaign events aren’t uncommon, cutting a town hall short to listen to music is a seemingly odd choice, especially now that the election’s just a few weeks away. This decision has since reignited some questions about his health and mental fitness.
Over the weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris released her medical report after getting a clean bill of health from her physician, which implied that Trump wasn’t up to the task because he had yet to release his own. Following the former president’s town hall, she doubled down on that sentiment, writing, “Hope he’s okay,” along with a social media post from her campaign that noted that Trump looked “lost, confused and frozen on stage.”
Some of Trump’s campaign speeches have indeed been marked by slurred words, confusion over names, and rambling off-topic diatribes. “This comes on the heels of consistent slips in memory and cognition telling crowds that voting was January 5th and confusing North Korean leaders with those from Iran,” says Fink. “Virtually every appearance shows evidence of his decline. It is clear that if Kamala demonstrated such flagrant cognitive errors, it would dominate the national conversation. It is time Trump’s capacity warranted more scrutiny.”
These might seem like small blunders, but similar questions about President Biden’s mental acuity after his disastrous debate performance in June forced the 81-year-old out of the presidential race. Now, some believe Democrats are trying to that flip the script on Trump.
“Harris is trying to turn Biden’s biggest vulnerability—the dagger MAGA thought would destroy the Democrats—into a boomerang on Trump, who after all would be the oldest president in history,” Democratic stragiest Brian Goldsmith tells us. “Remember, age is tied up with strength—and Harris wants to make Trump seem weak and confused.”
But this scrutiny on Trump’s health isn’t just being driven by Democrats — several Republicans who used to be in the former president’s inner circle have also raised some concerns.
“I saw decline in his skills in ’20 from ’16,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who used to be in the former president’s inner circle, told New York Times columnist Frank Bruni on Sunday. “And you see significant declines still.”
Similarly, Trump’s former White House Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci, implied that his one-time boss was unstable, writing on social media that he had “completely lost his marbles.”
