Lord of the Dance
Here's the full video.
Since it appears that there is some confusion in comment section of James Joyner’s post about the 39 minute dance conclusion at the end of the Trump rally yesterday, here’s the full video (it is not embeddable).
A commenter helpfully provides the timeline:
- 1:05:53 trump finally gets on stage
- 1:09:51 trump starts answering questions
- 1:38:47 First medical emergency
- 1:43:57 First musical interlude
- 1:45:49 Questions resume
- 1:47:38 Second medical emergency
- 1:48:03 second musical interlude
- 1:52:26 Jokingly asks if anyone else would like to faint
- 1:52:38 trump asks for music
- 1:58:03 trump asks for “Time to Say Goodbye” at the end of the event
- 2:02:49 Noem reminds trump he asked for “Time to Say Goodbye” to be played
- 2:04:20 music starts
- 2:11:06 trump asks for one more question
- 2:12:12 YMCA begins, after trump decides to stop answering questions
- 2:42:20 trump leaves the stage without saying anything else
If someone need confirmation, it is not hard to scrub through the final 39 minutes+ to see him on stage, kinda of dancing, and then leaving the stage. Note, again, that the medical issues happened before dance, dance, revolution took over.
He was not pausing because of those issues.
I saw folks on Twitter suggesting this was a person having a breakdown. I must admit, that seems overblown. This is Trump being Trump, which is a being a weird, unserious egotist (although he is other things as well).
Here’s “Time to Say Goodbye”.
BTW, the internet tells me that “Time to Say Goodbye” is popular song for funerals.
Also, nothing authoritarian at all about slogans such as “Trump Was Right About Everything”
I’m surprised he doesn’t have “Stayin’ Alive” on his playlist.
A number of people have pointed out Trump seems to be experiencing a fairly rapid weight loss these days. This is not an uncommon symptom with certain forms of dementia.
Kamala should start campaigning right now against Vance (and pretty much only against Vance), and of course she should use clips of Trump’s meltdown (nervous breakdown(?), y’all are being way too kind on this site just calling his dancing episode weird)) in her commercials against Vance to point out that hey America, I am campaigning against a man who had a breakdown and another who wants to turn the U.S. into a fascist/theocratic nation, is this really what you want?
She should just go hard at this, as of today on this very site I am seeing yet another of what I believe is a here is why the undecideds are different from you and I and why they are not decisively breaking for Harris article (which I shall check out soon). It seems folks are all well, it is at best a 50/50 chance that they vote for Kamala or Trump, and to that I say for pete’s sake, that tells us nothing insightful about “independent” voters.
If that is the situation on the ground Kamala has nothing much to lose ratcheting up the rhetoric calling out Trump and Vance on how they want to ruin this country. I still do not have this weird feeling causing hairs on the back of my neck to rise because I foresee bad things ahead for Kamala, quite the opposite in fact, I think she may have as much as a 60-70%+ chance of winning and winning big at that, but I also think she and her team are hyper aware that she might still lose and there is something quite purposeful about going down swinging.
@Michael Cain:
I don’t know man. He’s pretty well photographed. He’s on the news every single day, including of-the-day pictures and videos posted here. Wouldn’t we see the rapid weight loss rather than relying on others to point it out?
@inhumans99: It’d be an interesting study in psychology to see how Trump would react to the implicit suggestion that Vance would end up being the President.
Frankly, it’s entirely possible that the reason behind some of Trump’s corporate support is that they don’t expect him to be in charge long, and are pushing for what amounts to a tacit Vance victory.
If things go well and the Felon loses the election*, he may resort to an insanity or diminished capacity defense to stay out of prison**.
Actually this is more a hope than an expectation, insofar as either would require a court ordered psychiatric evaluation, and/or the presentation of evidence to that effect at trial.
Most likely he’ll cop a plea and get off with fines and probation, which he will go to great lengths to violate.
*I assume the inevitable coup attempt will be unsuccessful.
** I think prosecutors do want to put him in prison by now, and some judges would be willing to go along.
@Michael Cain: I scrolled forward to where Trump started speaking. Doesn’t look any thinner to me, but I don’t keep track so you may be right.
I see no weight loss. “Lard of the Dance” might be a more fitting title for this piece.
@inhumans99: Nonsense – Trump is the Brand that is attracting voters not Vance. She does need yet more urbane Lefty votes, people like you . She needs to erode his working class males in the swing states.
She needs to undercut Trump – with the demographics that are heavy in the Swing States.
Mocking his dance is not really more useful than the Republicans mocking Ocosia, but banging on Trump being Too Old, vacancies, etc. that as per polls showing rising worries amongst the Swing State demographics , that shows promise.
@Michael Cain: Wishcasting. He shows no signs of rapid loss to any ordinary eye not searching to hang internet-diagnoses.
@Michael Cain:
Blind people? Orange dude needs to consider salads and skip McDonald’s at least once a week. Not just tryna be funny, Donnie really is not at a healthy BMI, especially for his advanced age.
Melania should step in, a la Hillary urging Bill towards a plant-based diet. But Melania is likely to be counting down the days while ordering the Mar-a-Lago kitchen to dial up the trans fats, added sugar, and synthetic food dyes.
@CSK:
Ah, weight may come and go. But Mar a Lardo is forever.
@Kathy:
I think of the place as MAGA-Lardo.
@DK:
You may be onto something here. And one thing is definitely different about Hillary’s relationship with Bill: she seems to genuinely love him. I have no idea about why, but she has had multiple chances to be shed of him and actively refused to pull the trigger.
Steve Schmidt commenting on this, playing a few clips, in the context of Trump being Trump, the leader of a personality cult.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg0JZ5vkJME
@CSK: I’m a Merde-a-Lardo guy myself.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Some people are real serious about that whole “for better, for worse” bit.
My parents married about ten years after the Clintons. There was no abuse there, nor (to my knowledge) any serial infidelity a la Bill’s repeated humiliation of himself and Hillary in the 80s and 90s. But my Dad was a piece of work before mellowing out in his Paw-Paw years.
I used to think, “Momma really loves this dude, because couldn’t be me.”
As an adult, I get to be friends with my dad, so I sense his intelligence and work ethic would’ve been a powerful for aphrodisiac for my smart, industrious, and talented mother. Besides a bunch of kids + umpteen grandkids, they have a strong mind-meld in intellect, politics, and ambition.
I suspect that overpowered the negatives. I’d assume something similar with the Clintons? Who knows what happens behind closed doors in a marriage tho.
@Tony W:
Good one. Maybe the title of this post should be “Lord of the Dunce.”
@DK: On multiple occasions over recent years, I’ve encountered examples of Hillary taking actions that caused me to think that evangelicals could do worse than use her actions as a role model. Granted, considering the role models that US evangelicals use, better role model is not a particularly high bar to jump, but given that I’ve never been in cohorts who considered Hillary “Christian” at all, she’s better at Christian than I’d been willing to credit. She and Christianity both could do a lot worse than having her be more public with any religious faith she has. (And Christianity already does worse. But “you’re the only Jesus most people will ever encounter” has always been a sticking point with me. I wouldn’t have chosen that model if I’d been God.)
(And in regard to what happens behind closed doors, it’s none of my/our business–as relates to marriage or anything else.)
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
It helps when people keep their business out of the streets, which is not always possible for public figures.
I know my parents argued because a) duh, of course and b) I could always tell when they were tense and only “speaking” but not “talking.” But I never saw them argue, and only overheard them once.
They never exchanged cross words in front of us, almost never even contradicted each other in our presence. I always admired the united front even when I suspected one was thinking, “I don’t agree with this.” I’ve tried to emulate it in my relationships with various degrees of success.
My favorite part of this is Noem looking so uncomfortable. She deserves this.
@Michael Cain: Gotta admit: he looks the same to me. Certainly nothing dramatic.
I do know that if I had his money, my suits would fit better (but I would eschew the ridiculous hairdo and the spray-tan, so what do I know?).