Kamala Harris targeted her United States presidential election rival Donald Trump’s mental state and fitness for office on Tuesday after the 78-year-old Republican’s televised town hall descended into a surreal, impromptu music session.
Three weeks ahead of the US election, Harris’s campaign has increasingly focused on Trump’s health and mental stability. The campaign was quick to comment, stating that the former president appeared “lost, confused, and frozen on stage.”
For around half an hour, Monday’s event in Oaks, near Philadelphia, followed the usual script for the November 5 election, with Trump fielding friendly questions from supporters on the economy.
However, a pause due to two medical emergencies in the crowd led to a bizarre 39 minutes of music and dancing, as Trump abandoned the election discussion to play his favourite hits, swaying awkwardly on stage.
“Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?” he quipped, abruptly ending the Q&A session and instructing his team to turn up the volume.
For years, Trump has made a brief, jerky dance his signature at the end of rallies, almost always to the Village People’s 1978 disco anthem “YMCA.”
On Monday, though, he remained on stage for nine songs, which ranged from opera to Guns N’ Roses and Elvis, alternating between awkward dance moves and standing still, staring into the crowd.
“Hope he’s okay,” Harris remarked dryly on X.
Undeterred, Trump was bopping to the Village People once again on Tuesday at a rally in Atlanta, where he arrived 90 minutes late and did not address the previous night’s events or the criticism.
Delivering his usual stump speech focusing on illegal immigration, Trump reiterated his now-familiar falsehoods and exaggerations about migrant crime in Colorado and Ohio, referring to the country as “occupied” by foreign criminals.
If his intention was to move on from Monday’s odd display, he failed to do so.
Dead heat –
Trump referred to the two world wars as “beautiful” and claimed to have invented the word “caravan.” In explaining how he intended to make America great again, he went off on a tangent about his wealthy friends, beachwear, and President Joe Biden.
“I have a lot of rich friends. They go here. They go there. They’re boring as hell,” he began, seemingly out of nowhere. “Nobody cares. They put on their bathing suit. They don’t look much better than Biden.”
Harris and Trump are in a dead heat, according to polls, with the election likely to be decided by seven swing states where the margins could be as close as a few thousand votes.
Trump is the oldest person ever nominated for a presidential bid, following Biden’s withdrawal from the race after a disastrous debate that sparked concerns about his age.
Trump has not released a recent comprehensive health report, drawing fierce criticism from Harris, 59, who has increasingly focused on his age and his physical and mental fitness.
In her closing argument during an interview with popular radio host Charlamagne tha God, aimed at boosting her messaging to Black male voters — a demographic where Trump has made gains — she reiterated her concerns about Trump’s rallies, repeating a claim that angered him during their September debate: that supporters were leaving his rallies early.
“This man is weak and unfit,” Harris said.
Trump began the day with a more restrained tone at an Economic Club of Chicago event, where he advocated for imposing “obnoxious” tariffs on trading partners like Mexico, to encourage companies to relocate factories to the US.
“To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff,” Trump remarked.
