Trump a Dancing Fool
Contrary to widespread perception, white men can in fact dance.
After almost a decade in the political limelight, it takes quite a bit for Donald Trump to do something bizarre by his own standards. He succeeded last night.
WaPo (“Trump sways and bops to music for 39 minutes in bizarre town hall episode“):
The town hall, moderated by South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R), began with questions from preselected attendees for the former president. Donald Trump offered meandering answers on how he would address housing affordability and help small businesses. But it took a sudden turn after two attendees required medical attention.
And so Trump, after jokingly asking the crowd whether “anybody else would like to faint,” took a different approach.
“Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into a music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?” he said.
For 39 minutes, Trump swayed, bopped — sometimes stopping to speak — as he turned the event into almost a living-room listening session of his favorite songs from his self-curated rally playlist.
He played nine tracks. He danced. He shook hands with people onstage. He pointed to the crowd. Noem stood beside him, nodding with her hands clasped. Trump stayed in place onstage, slowly moving back and forth. He was done answering questions for the night.
Characteristically, the NYT downplayed the incident, shaving an entire 9 minutes off the dance: “Trump Bobs His Head to Music for 30 Minutes in Odd Town Hall Detour.”
Donald J. Trump was about 30 minutes into a town hall Monday night in suburban Philadelphia when a medical emergency in the crowd brought the questions and answers to a halt. Moments later, he tried to get back on track, when another medical incident seemed to derail things, this time for good.
And so Mr. Trump, a political candidate known for improvisational departures, made a detour. Rather than try to restart the political program, he seemed to decide in the moment that it would be more enjoyable for all concerned — and, it appeared, for himself — to just listen to music instead.
Mr. Trump had his staff fire up his campaign playlist, standing on the stage for about half an hour and swaying to songs as his crowd slowly dwindled.
He bobbed his head through the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.,” his usual closing song. He swayed soberly to Rufus Wainwright’s version of “Hallelujah,” watched a Sinead O’Connor video, rocked along to Elvis, watched the crowd during “Rich Men North of Richmond” and then, finally, left the stage to shake hands on his way out during one last song.
The Atlantic‘s David A. Graham characterized it as “Trump Breaks Down Onstage.”
Is Donald Trump well enough to serve as president?
The question is not temperamental or philosophical fitness—he made clear long ago that the answer to both is no—but something more fundamental.
The election is in three weeks, and Pennsylvania is a must-win state for both Trump and Kamala Harris, but during a rally last night in Montgomery County, northwest of Philadelphia, Trump got bored with the event, billed as a “town hall,” and just played music for almost 40 minutes, scowling, smirking, and swaying onstage. Trump is no stranger to surreal moments, yet this was one of the oddest of his political career.
[…]
To watch the event is to see signs of someone having a breakdown. Like Joe Biden’s disastrous debate against Trump in June, when the president’s fumbling performance and struggle to get sentences out made it impossible to believe he was up to the task of serving for four years, Trump’s rally last night would force any reasonable person to conclude that he is not up to the grueling task of leading the world’s greatest nation, handling economic crises, or dealing with foreign adversaries.
Which isn’t to say that some people didn’t try to reason through it. Reporters still seem unsure of how to deal with Trump’s stranger behaviors. Journalists are trained to take information and make sense of it, even amid chaos. The problem is that doing so conjures logic where none exists.
I continue to doubt that there’s anything, at this point, that Trump can do to alter perceptions of his fitness for office. But this was, to coin a phrase, weird.
Well, perhaps a few so-called uncommitted voters will care, but don’t think that any MAGA voter gives a damn.
I recently read a piece in the NYT, wherein many MAGA supporters opined that they don’t believe that Trump will do the appalling things that many constantly say he will. They believe that it’s bluster, that he’s basically trolling the libs.
I hope that Harris is being underreported in swing state polling, and that she will be the 2024 surprise that a trump was in 2016.
How much crap did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have to put up with over a video of her dancing while she was in college? About how it was undignified and demonstrated she wasn’t qualified for elective office?
I expect El Weirdo will be hawking a Dancing Felon doll before the week is out, only$5,000 each for a limited edition.
America has a choice between Madam president and Madman president.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-town-hall-derailed-after-medical-emergencies-crowd/story?id=114796716
@Al Ameda: Selling the dementia, the too old
The problem is you all keep focusing on what bothers you all (which yes, I do agree is indeed bothersome) but it is not what is changing minds outside f thsoe already changed
However the Too old, mental absence etc. that as like with Biden appears to be developing traction as that isn’t easily characterisable as a joke or trolling.
Imagine the galaxy-scale level of utter shrieking insanity that would have ensued had this been Joe Biden instead of Donald Trump. Front page of the NYT every day between now and November 5th.
But for Trump, it was just another Monday. He is being graded on the most extreme curve ever offered a candidate for political office in American history.
If he wins, it will be in no small part because of the total failure of our major media to report on him the way it should be done. The normalization, sanewashing, and minimization of his gargantuan flaws and his fascist rhetoric will have led to the re-election as President of the worst man ever to hold the office.
@Al Ameda:
It’s so strange that because polls have tightened, as they nearly always do, people somehow think Harris is trailing in swing state polling like Trump was in 2016, when she’s not. The race has barely changed over the past year. The Senate Republican campaign fund’s own internal polls have Harris narrowly winning the electoral college, as do the data guys’s models. Based on high quality polls, a Trump win would be the surprise.
What’s actually going on is some Democrats can’t give up the notion that Hillary was a bad candidate, 2024 Biden was a bad candidate, and that if they could just find the magical “good candidate” Trump would be losing big (according to polls).
It’s just not the case. The reality is Trump specifically and the Republican Party more broadly have large and loyal swing state base that would stick with Trump no matter who he ran against. Trump sucks, yes. But electorally-speaking, he’s just not as bad as a candidate as Democrats want him to be.
Alexandra Petri
“Gift WaPo”
I’m waiting for the episode where Trump breaks down and starts speaking in tongues. All to consolidate the Pentecostal vote.
Ok… I’m willing to overlook Trump not releasing his medical records if can breakdance for half an hour. But whatever he was doing on stage looked pretty low energy.
@DK:
A lot of people want a strong daddy to make their worries disappear and he is good at creating that image of himself, “I am your protector.” You can see it in the Ben Garrison cartoons and McNaughton paintings.
Calling him a fascist or Nazi does not bother a lot of them who wants someone to kick ass for them.
@Lounsbury: “The problem is you all keep focusing on what bothers you all (which yes, I do agree is indeed bothersome) but it is not what is changing minds outside f thsoe already changed”
So, Great Sage, what should we be focusing on that would change minds? You are apparently the only person on the planet who knows this — even KH’s team can’t figure it out — and it would really be a mitzvah for you to share it at this point.
I mean, it can’t be that you’re just claiming superiority without actually having any ideas… can it?
@charontwo: True true. Which is insane and amoral, in an advanced democracy. Democrats should that accept this insanity and amorality is real and widespread, and redouble efforts to ameliorate it, rather than pretending the Democratic candidate is doomed when not headed towards a 450 electoral vote landslide, as she would be in a sane America with fully-realized promise and fulfilled potential.
A recent World Elects survey of Norway found that Norwegians would vote 84% Harris, 11% Trump. America too could have a smart, healthy, happy, mentally-stable electorate if we bothered to raise smart, healthy, happy, stable children via public and private investment in universal healthcare, universal childcare, paid family leave, widespread and efficient mass transit, and guaranteed housing.
But we refuse not to because something something socialism something something markets, so here we are.
The entire mainstream media spent 3 1/2 years lying to the public and covering up Biden’s mental and physical decline. THREE AND A HALF YEARS.
Who left the door to Bizarro universe open?
@MBunge: oh shut up and go watch clips of your quivering bowl of pueding in an ill fitting suit. Rubbing your nips is completly optional.
@MBunge: I am sure – I am certain – that there is stuff I don’t see, and stuff I don’t know, because of filtering in my information network.
I would love to have a more accurate view of the world. Of course, it turns out that Biden isn’t running for president. Trump is.
So, the most germane thing you could do would be to tell me why we’re wrong that this shows decline in Trump’s mental state. Why we shouldn’t be concerned. I would be interested in such a case. Perhaps others here would be, too.
Meanwhile, arguing about whether and for how long media covered up Biden’s mental state has absolutely no value, and it’s off-topic.
@Al Ameda:
MAGA voters aren’t the target. They’re a cult. Oligarchs may think twice if they see their tax cuts aren’t worth absolute chaos. Chaos has never been could for business.
@MBunge: Glad to hear you don’t want to mimic the past and have the right wing media complex cover up Trump’s growing issues with mental stability. Looking forward to your advocacy for media integrity regardless of your viewpoints.
@MBunge:
Setting aside that that is not true (it was a common refrain by regulars that the MSM talked about Biden’s age too much), it is irrelevant to whether Trump’s behavior is acceptable or not.
You might as well be screaming about the price of ice cream or how blue the sky is.
And for the record: the medical issue happened and the dance part happened after that was attended to. The dance party was not because of the medical issue. the clips are easy to find,
@MBunge: Which is why Biden is still running for President!
Oh, wait…
@MBunge: I mean, but what actually happened was legacy and rightwing media spent 5 years pointing out and even polling on Biden’s age and physical decline (Biden’s brain is in decent shape, per his continued success at executing his day job better than anyone in recent memory).
Biden’s increasing physical frailty had gotten so much coverage that when an ailing Biden gave a disastrous debate performance in a cold-or-COVID fog, the stage was already set for the media and Democratic donors and power-brokers to turn the dial up to 11 and force Biden out of the 2024 race.
Meanwhile, Trump has sounded and acted like a demented loon for much of the last 9 years, yet neither the mainstream nor rightwing press — nor Republican party bosses — give Trump’s unhealthy physical state, mental diminishment, and increasing elderliness even 1/10 of the negative attention given Biden’s aging.
@wr: EAIAC applies here, I think.
@Jay L Gischer: I had Trump as “not my choice” before he came down the escalator. I voted for Perot and am now disabused of “businessmen can run the country better” notions.
And even then I’d have to believe that Trump was successful. [facepalm]
@wr: My you are a peevish little adolescent cliquey twat. Like every otther commentator, expressing opinions on a message board, it is personal opinions.
Odd that, this Internet thing eh?
Carry on with your peevish little cliquey whinging on.
Why has nobody mentioned Trump’s incontinence? Yes, he poops his pants daily.. he did it on The Apprentice and never stopped.
He smells like an operating horse barn.. there is, in fact, a level worse than both Axe and Drakkar.
“Contrary to widespread perception, white men can in fact dance”.
If your evidence is what Trump did, then absolutely not.
@Moosebreath: I commented elsewhere it showed not all God’s chillun got rhythm.
@charontwo: Per Petri:
Weirdly, this is almost exactly what happened the one time I saw Pete Seeger at a Pumpkin festival a few years before his death. He played a few songs, and volunteers passed out copies of the Gettysburg address, and then he got everyone to speak it aloud at the same time. And then he was done.
Utterly baffling moment.
And weirder still, it was planned. Or he just always carried a few hundred or so copies of the Gettysburg address.
Maybe it was a Strawberry festival. Not that this would make any more sense. Was it chilly, or was I eating strawberry shortcake?
@charontwo:
@Gustopher:
I can almost picture Swift going into politics if she ever retires from music.
I’m not saying she’d be good at it, or for that matter bad at it. But she has a massive fan base and name recognition. So I can picture her running for Congress ten-15 years from now.
@Kathy: Vote for Taylor Swift for Congress because she’s a famous billionaire pop musician. Yep. It’s got all of the points covered to make sense to the average Murkan voter.
Good time to be old.
@Lounsbury: It’s harder to distinguish one individual when they move in a pack like this.
@Mikey: If Biden had done this, the NYT would write an article about how the right wing doctored photos to make it look like Biden was dancing.
I’ve been saying since 2015 that Trump is obviously off his head. It’s always puzzled me that so few Americans have admitted it, or at least been willing to say so publicly. He is stunningly ignorant, which is not his fault, but convinced he knows more about everything than anyone else, which is. He is utterly incapable of constructing an argument using the elementary norms of evidence-based reasoning. His unscripted conversation consists of random fragments, often completely unrelated to each other, suggesting his mind is incapable of holding on to a topic for more than a few seconds.
The boy definitely ain’t right.
SNL should have a field day with this…and to any Maga folks trying to normalize this through some odd deflection….bruh, seriously?
@Ken_L: this only parallels the number of Americans who have lost their brains through a combination of listening to Fox News, getting older, COVID-19, and getting brain-fried by incessant use of social media.
I’d also blame it on personality disorders and mental illness were it not the fact I watched a perfectly intelligent friend of mine go down the rathole through pure sulking and self-pity and end up as someone I’ve decided not to be in touch with.
@Fortune: look at you; all stupid and shit.
@Jc: An exact copy of what happened would be supremely vicious and funny. For 40 minutes. Andy Kaufmanesque.
Regarding off-topic discussions of Biden’s decline, let us recall that he was still negotiating a hostage deal the day he stopped his campaign for re-election. I’ll take that sort of “decline” over Trump’s anytime.
@MBunge:
NYT, July 9, 2022: At 79, Biden is testing the boundaries of age and the Presidency
NY Times, June 4, 2023: The complicated reality of Joe Biden, America’s oldest president
NY Times, February 9, 2024: The challenges of an aging president
NY Times, February 10, 2024: How old is too old to be president? An uncomfortable question arises.
NY Times, February 11, 2024: Yes, Biden’s age matters
That’s just a sampling from one newspaper. There are a lot more from the Times and others.
@DK:
Oh, enough. You were the one panicking over Biden being pushed out, calling everyone traitors and backstabbers and at one point threatening to send me your dick pics. The only hopes we have right now are new voter registrations and GOTV. Kamala has raised a billion dollars, and GOTV is expensive. Do you think Biden was on track to raise a billion dollars? Do you think he was going to inspire hundreds of thousands of new young voters? The man cannot campaign or get through an interview, let alone a second debate, which Trump would have happily accepted.
Biden should have walked away a winner after one term.
No one is freaking out because polls are tightening in their usual way. The tightening has been from a 3.5 point edge to a 2.5 edge, and in the NYT polls, a 2 point edge. Meanwhile we have not managed to put away a single swing state. If polls had tightened from 5 to 4? That might be less of a worry. But within 2 points in every swing state? No, that is not normal, and it is really bad.
@wr:
@Lounsbury did offer a suggestion, to whit that the ‘fascist’ line of attack is played out, and the ‘senile dribbling fool’ line of attack is still open. He’s right.
@MBunge:
You’re a liar and and a creep, but I’ll give you credit for one thing: at least you’re not the coward Jack/Drew and JKB are. They only crawl out from under their rocks when they think they’ve got a winning point to make. But you? You stand right up for turning the country over to a corrupt, fascistic, treasonous, senile clown.
@Fortune: They wouldn’t and you know they wouldn’t. This is a weak and stupid lie. You are usually better than this even if you’re wrong.
@Kathy: She’d have to be beyond bored and a glutton for punishment to run for Congress. I’d wager that if she wants to get involved in politics, she’d establish a foundation or something like that.
Being in Congress is not glamorous. As an incoming MOC, you get a small, sh!tty office. Constituents bug you about things you have no control over (like their garbage pickup), and you spend most of your days chasing down things like delayed passports.
I also think that they could not handle her need for additional security.
You really got to get better news sources or watch the original source.
@JKB: How, exactly, does that improve anything?
Medical issues at campaign events are not uncommon. It gets HOT indoors, and his audience skews older with more health problems. After the medical issues are handled, instead of returning to the format of a town hall, he stands around and listens to music.
You have to recognize this is not normal, right?
We’ve seen the video. There’s nothing about this that you can explain or wish away.
@Jen: I was at a Maggie Rogers concert in Nashville last Saturday. During one portion of the show a person in the pit around the stage needed medical attention. Indeed, Rogers called for a medic from the stage. She played the piano a little longer than planned while attention was rendered. The show then continued.
@Michael Reynolds:
It is… a coin flip which is indeed a not wonderful place to be as the odds are straight even the Orange Cretin returns.
I would say not merely still open but is providing some fresh fodder to acid-bath Trump – and as independent polling as per what I read in places like Wisconsin for a small set of quality polls that are asking the question “Is Trump too old” is showing movement amongst those demographics that Madame Harris needs to at minimum not vote for Trump.
More attacks on Trump as being too old, losing it, unfocused, etc.
Banging on in (unrecognised) snobbery as a certain fraction is desirious to in urbane Uni degree holders language and about Uni educated professional class priority concerns has obviously won all that could be won by such lines (and sneering at the stupidity, idiocy, etc of the MAGA curioius and expressing disbelief or other unrecognised snobbery is fairly useless for actually winnning)
@MBunge: “The entire mainstream media spent 3 1/2 years lying to the public and covering up Biden’s mental and physical decline. THREE AND A HALF YEARS.”
In between complaining that Biden out negotiated them, and while Biden delivered the best COVID recovery in the developed world.