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.

This kind of behavior would have resulted in discussion of dementia and Alzheimers if it was a Democrat.

  • Vespair@lemm.ee
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    1 hour ago

    I hate that I’m at the stage that I can kind of see the logic in Trump’s weirdness, but I dunno, I think everyone is missing what this event was.

    People are forgetting that Trump is an incredibly small and incredibly petty man. I think this was 100% about punishing Kristi Noem for embarrassing Trump earlier. I think it’s as simple as Trump didn’t like being on stage with Noem so he decided to act like a child mostly to make her uncomfortable. Watch the event and their interactions; watch how he responses when she speaks.

    And this is Trump so ignore the fact that none of Noem’s own stupid bullshit had anything to do with Trump and ignore the fact that she’s still a sycophant whose praise he will still accept, and ignore the fact that Trump hates dogs too. None of that matters. I really think what happened in the moment is that Trump looked at Noem, remembered that he had been mad at her before, and decided to act like a child in response.

  • Carrick1973@lemmy.world
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    58 minutes ago

    How can people not see that he doesn’t even want to be president? The only reason he’s doing this is to keep his sorry ass out of jail and to squeeze as much money from his base as possible. If he wins he’s going to spend at least half his term at Mara Lago playing golf. That means his fucking kids will be running things. Fuck this timeline where people would rather run around the China store breaking as much shit as possible rather than try to fix anything.

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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      24 minutes ago

      It doesn’t matter whether he wants it. Something near half the country is going to vote for him, and the result will be that the grifters around him hold power if he wins.

  • voluble@lemmy.ca
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    4 hours ago

    One of the strangest elements of this story is that the Village People and Rufus Wainwright are on the Trump campaign playlist.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Weirdness - very on-brand for the cons, who are total freaks, and not in a good way of being a freak.

    • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      he was probably just on shrooms/molly or something similar. the guy is a menace but seriously? knocking a person for vibing out to music because they’re sick of the campaign trail? honestly i wish he just did that all the time and left everyone else alone with his racist/facist non-sense.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    I cannot help but wonder if we are in the Matrix, and David Lynch has been given the reins for the direction of what this time-line is…all donnie needs now is to dance with the backwards talking little man and to have the tall man materialize behind him…

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    21 hours ago

    This is a comment i made in a different thread:

    The actual event is, as usual, fascinatingly cringey.

    This is right after the second guy fainted, so trump’s already been interrupted twice, the venue’s tiny, and I think he doesn’t like dog killer Kristi Noem despite obvious commonalities. She was probably insufficiently subservient.

    He wants security to open the doors to let fresh air in, but they can’t because of USSS measures to protect his dumb ass. Watch how he loses his mind in rage, suppresses it, and rolls it into his patter in the span of one second.

    Then he says hey everybody lets all hear my favorite - Pavarotti singing Ave Maria! (Crowd cheers). The fuck? It gets weirder from there.

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Republicans don’t want a leader. They want a vegetable. Every (normal) Republican runs on limited government, then gets into power and adds government: (Nixon and the EPA, Bush and Homeland security, etc…) Regan came to power and then didn’t do any of that, since he had alzheimers and didn’t know who he was half the time.

    That is the golden age they want to bring back.

  • Nusm@yall.theatl.social
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    1 day ago

    This kind of behavior would have resulted in discussion of dementia and Alzheimers if it was a Democrat. literally any other person on the planet.

    Fixed it for you.

        • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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          Yeah, and that was bad.

          I’m not sure how that’s relevant here except as a reason why doing that sort of thing is generally a bad habit.

        • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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          5 hours ago

          No we didn’t. Deans campaign was already in the toilet. The scream was his attempt to get people jazzed about upcoming primaries he had no chance of winning anyway.

      • Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 hours ago

        For 40 minutes, during a rally, awkwaedly swing back and forth? No I doubt they would. Imagine what you would think if Biden did this.

      • Nelots@lemm.ee
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        12 hours ago

        On stage, during a campaign event, for nearly an hour? Lol, no. That’s weird.

  • zephorah@lemm.ee
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    23 hours ago

    I think at this point the Trump ticket is the JD Vance for President ticket. If they win, even if he doesn’t drop from a bad stroke or cardiovascular disease, the team will 25th his ass.

    It’s essentially the Vance / Johnson ticket going forward.

    • aseriesoftubes@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      the team will 25th his ass

      That’s what they should do in that situation, but in reality, there’s no chance. The bar is too high.

      From the 25th Amendment:

      Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

      Trump would have a cabinet full of true believers and yes-men. There’s no way that more than half would be on board to jettison him. The Congressional cure is also a non-starter. If Trump were to win, there would probably also be a Republican-controlled Congress, and we all know that Congressional Republicans have zero spine when it comes to standing up to daddy.

      • zephorah@lemm.ee
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        20 hours ago

        Idk. Vance doesn’t strike you as just waiting for that opp? Look at how he flip flops.

      • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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        19 hours ago

        I completely, wholeheartedly believe that the GOP could fight kicking and screaming to get Trump elected and then immediately, unanimously 25 him before the inauguration is even complete. They have zero shame. This is not even slightly outside of their ballpark.

        It’s an obvious con, but that didn’t stop them from doing the exact same thing with their supreme court justices. That was also an obvious con that would not have been allowed in any functioning government.

  • Podunk@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    I just saw a photo from last nights town hall. The man looks like he wont make it to november 5th.

    Sincere question: Have any of the experts run numbers on what happens to the vance ticket if trump takes a worm nap before nov 5th?

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      20 hours ago

      Yes. You have to remember you aren’t electing Trump directly. You’re voting for his electors.

      If Trump dies before taking office, the party decides who will take his place.

      It’s most likely going to be Vance, but honestly it could be anyone.

      Assuming that there isn’t any fuckery (it’s Republicans after all), then Vance becomes President and then nominates a VP that goes through the Senate approval process.

      I can’t remember the last time this was discussed but it was a while ago.

      • Podunk@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        I agree, but that wasnt my question. Well, i guess it was accidentally vague. I can see how you misunderstood my prompt.

        My question is in regards to what direction the voting public trend if that happens. Martyr boost propelling vance up, or fizzle bust?

        • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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          Fizzle bust. Vance has a fraction of the charisma and no cult of personality. As for martyrs…

          “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”

        • samus12345@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Hard to say. When he finally dies or is just off the Republican ticket one way or another, we’ll find out how much of the Republican voting base is attached to Trump, not the GOP.

      • Podunk@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        Well thats why i ask. You can say lucky us, but at this point in the election, im not so sure.

        Between the vitriol and retoric and conspiracy theories weve already seen, the implication of violence and absolute craziness would, without question be enough for me to not hope for anything like that.

        But im asking about how the voting public would poll. Would vance get a martyr boost from their dear dead leader, or would an immediately apathetic undecided vote rise up, one that was origionally locked into the trump/vamce ticket. Would it just vanish overnight? I doubt it, but vance remains an amazingly unpopular vp pick. Without trump, where is his ceiling?

        • blattrules@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          Yeah, that’s a good point; my brain is never prepared for the irrational conspiracies these idiots cook up. I would think that without trump, the whole momentum behind him would just die off, but who knows what would happen if Vance then just starts saying that the democrats poisoned his Big Mac and assassinated him. I’d like to think that only the die-hard crazies would still be motivated enough to vote for Vance and the rest would just stay home.

  • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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    22 hours ago

    just played music for almost 40 minutes, scowling, smirking, and swaying onstage.

    Context:
    Trump called for Ava Maria to be played after a medical emergency put it on pause for about five minutes an hour into the event. He then took another question. Just a few minutes later, there was another medical emergency. Apparently it was a bit hot in the event space. It went off the rails soon after that as he called for the doors to be opened and wanting to play more music to end the event.

    At one point he stops to ask if they want to do one more question. Although the crowd cheers and he says we’ll do one more, he called for YMCA to be played.

    Certainly an odd presidential town hall but definitely not the worst thing this guy has done and in no way did he “break down”. Honestly, between the lies and threats to other humans, this might be the most human I’ve ever seen him. It’s really sad to see how delusional these people are.

    Here’s the stream from PBS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-FhvhdVSZE

    My favorite part was when they played James Brown’s “This is a Man’s World”. Clearly, they haven’t listened to the song LOL

    Edit: Here’s another story from ABC News - Trump’s bizarre music session reignites questions about his mental acuity

    His choice to play music is debatable. Having watched the video, it didn’t seem odd to me that he made these choices. There was absolutely nothing in this town hall to indicate an issue with his mental acuity that has not already been known. He has always been an idiot. This is not news.

    • Furbag@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      As much as I would love to believe that this is evidence of Trump in the throes of cognitive decline, I have to agree. Him standing there and doing nothing for 30 minutes is certainly low energy and cringe-worthy, but it isn’t indicative of any kind of mental breakdown and the media and pundits are latching onto this too hard. The dishonestly on display is a little saddening, to be honest. There’s plenty of things to hate Trump for without having to make up shit about his mental acuity.

      • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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        6 hours ago

        I’m seeing an overwhelming number of headlines specifically targeting “cognitive decline”. The media is banking on this thread to sway voters to not elect him.

        First - “the media” (any responsible outlet, at least) should never try to sway an election.
        Second - the people finding these stories aren’t going to be swayed to begin with.
        Third - Trump has changed News as we know it. Outlets are more motivated by clicks than reporting. Outside a small handful of exceptions, fair and unbiased reporting no longer exists.
        Fourth - The “left wing media” is doing the same thing Fox News was doing ten years ago: lying and misrepresenting the facts to fit a narrative. That narrative is needed to compel their audience to subscribe to their social media and newsletters and to repost articles on these forums to generate ad revenue.

        The left and the right are both in their own delusions. I agree that those on the right, certainly the far right, are more dangerous to democracy and American values. The outcome of these delusions is different but the formula and the manipulation of the public is the same. The left (which I consider myself a part of), is the frog in the slowly boiling pot.

        People need to be more rational and unbiased when reading the news. People need to call out these editors for misrepresenting the facts or making claims that are guesses at best.

        I agree with you. This is weird and cringy and not presidential. THIS is the guy we want as Commander in Chief? Still, I could easily see this event happen at a mayoral town hall. I could absolutely see Tim Walz doing something like this. So, from the perspective of the cult that sits before him, I could easily understand them loving this seemingly intimate moment with their false god.

        From the eyes of his followers, this event was a win for Trump. That’s a perspective a responsible news outlet should consider - not ‘how did this look from the staunch left’ but how did this look from the desperate right.

        The media needs to stop reassuring us this is an easy win for Harris. Stop preaching to the choir that the man is sick in the head (we have known this for ten years). They need to inform us how serious this election is and how devoted his followers are. They should be scaring us, with truthful reporting, to show up in numbers never seen in US history.

        The responsible media needs to work on reaching the clueless believers. They need to gain the trust back from the public at large. Running headlines/stories like this is strengthening the distrust of the media.

      • Hylactor@sopuli.xyz
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        13 hours ago

        Well, we’ve tried convicting him with felonies and playing actual tape of him describing rape, which he is guilty of, and no one seemed particularly swayed. So, facts and evidence seem to be out. If it takes a more abstract, personal approach to break the spell he holds half the voters in the country under, then so be it.

        • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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          3 hours ago

          No. It’s not we tried being honest about it so now we have to be dicks about it. It’s that someone needs to care enough about all of this to reach these people where they are. Something is broken. You don’t fix this by plugging it with bubble gum and hope it works.

          Why are people not compelled to change their minds when there’s overwhelming evidence that he is not a good person or someone who should lead this country? What in their minds is he doing for them?

          I just had a family vacation where I found out most of my family intends to vote for him. How, I don’t know, but they’re not aware of how horrible he was as president or as a person. They’re getting fake news from social media. All they care about is “the border” and gas prices. I told them it was Trump who, for personal reasons, killed the best bipartisan immigration bill this country has ever seen and that no president has ever had substantial control over gas prices. They had nothing to say in response. I don’t know if they didn’t know this already or if they just didn’t want to hear it (probably both). All they know is that for the years that Trump was president, their wallets were fuller. Personally, I think everyone has forgotten how much government stimulus we all received and few of us are aware of the ramifications we’re still experiencing from the pandemic. My take away was that a lot of people are not as invested in politics as you or I are. The information they come across is casual. They see a headline, assume it’s fact, then scroll on to the next meme.

          Moreover, there needs to be honest and sincere conversations. We’ve all assumed the role of debater where we’re unable to concede a point or allow someone to have an opinion different than our own. The facts need to be transparent. The media needs to stop tainting the evidence. Calmer discussions need to be had.

          For example: We should all make note that there is an immigration issue at our southern border and that we want to minimize all illegal alien activity. We should be having open discussions about how to resolve that issue. Some people want to shut the border down but they may be unaware that that’s not legal to do. Some people believe this is a Democrat operation to get more voters but they may not be aware that a lot of Latin American immigrants are super conservative. Instead of allowing The Right to own this conversation, The Left should be pummeling this issue towards the proper direction. We should be demanding more spending at the border to get more judges. We need to increase the ease of people to come into the country, not lock them out, so they’re more likely to do it the right way than the illegal way. And although the Biden administration was nearly successful in this, it wasn’t reported enough to break through to The Right. This is what should have been plastered all over the media, not the already known fact of Trump’s mental issues.

    • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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      21 hours ago

      There was absolutely nothing in this town hall to indicate an issue with his mental acuity that has not already been known. He has always been an idiot. This is not news.

      Clooney put a hit out on Biden for much less.

      But the point is to report on this in the hopes that the American people will pay attention. I can only speculate why you want to keep a lid on it…

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        Pay attention to what?? The stuff we’ve all lived through for the last five ten years??

        This report is bullshit. It’s an illustration of the demise of the media and real journalism. It’s misinformation to solidify a narrative.

        I know. Most people don’t care about policy - most notability DT. I understand that clicks aren’t gained through real journalism. This is exactly how we ended up with this dickhole to begin with. Every media outlet flooded their blocks with every minute story they could drum up about Trump. This left little time to cover any other alternative candidate. Everyone is obsessed with loving or hating this guy. WTF are we doing? No one is changing their mind about him at this point. How, I don’t know. How the fuck any living human could possibly consider this shitstain for anything more than a janitor is beyond me.

        The point is that these stories are misleading. It doesn’t matter what you think about the person or the outlet doing the reporting. We should be more critical of the truth and the mistruths we’re being fed. Had anyone successfully made this argument in 2015, perhaps we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

        • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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          18 hours ago

          We ended up with this monster because news outlets were actively protecting him because he was good for ratings.

          The sanewashing is finally coming to an end and people who don’t follow politics will hear about this.

          But that is apparently bad in your eyes. Well, we can probably guess who’s eyes but…

          As for nobody changing their minds? Multiple republicans openly support Kamala. The fucking KKK put in for… jill Stein. Minds are changing. So stop actively fighting against sanity.

          • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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            6 hours ago

            When polls are indicating that half of the United States of America are planning to vote for - THIS GUY - I don’t think minds are changing at all.

            I would respectfully submit that you also are suffering from delusions.

        • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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          17 hours ago

          Clooney was an excellent Bruce though.

          But yeah. Kilmer and Conroy are the only actors who have managed to do justice to both. Greenwood and Oswald have given amazing performances but really can only do one half.

          • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            17 hours ago

            I’m such a slut for Batman Forever… cheesy fun amazing movie where my beautiful Val and Jim KILLED IT

            also my brain randomly just thinks “BLAAAST HIIIM” and “WHYYY WON’T YOU DIIIIIIE?!”

            • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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              7 hours ago

              Forever retroactively got shit on because of And Robin and later the Nolan movies. I think it was very flawed but it was a perfect movie for the TAS era in terms of tone.

              That said, what makes me laugh the most are the people who pretend the friggin Burton Batmans are deeply dark and serious. They were camp as all hell and fun for it.

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        21 hours ago

        I think we’re at a boy who cries wolf point. News pieces like this are almost a daily occurrence. Those who don’t care won’t simply because it happens again. If anything it will further galvanize their resistance.

        There’s a sense that these things must be reported and recorded for reasons of history, but for whatever effect one would like to happen as a result it is probably useless.

        • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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          20 hours ago

          They are a daily occurrence because there is finally corporate pushback against the sanewashing that has occurred for years.

          But hey. Nobody should talk about how mentally unstable a candidate is, right? I really hope you are getting paid for this.

          • doc@fedia.io
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            20 hours ago

            I’ve been hearing it for over 8 years now, to varrying degrees of intensity across the media spectrum. I’d assume anyone else paying even the least amount of attention has, too.

            Yet here we are at a 48% split with 3 weeks to go.

            So yeah, keep reporting. Maybe that fraction of a percent will make the difference; it’s close enough that it could! But don’t hold your breath, and don’t keep beating on the same horse as if doing so will make a difference.

            • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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              19 hours ago

              I am smart and anyone who is smart won’t be affected by anti trump reporting so nobody should even try and we should sane wash comrade putins best asset again

              You should be ashamed of yourself

              • doc@fedia.io
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                19 hours ago

                Brilliant being combative with strangers in the same echo chamber as you. Glad we spent this time together.

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      23 hours ago

      Thank you for the context. I do agree this shines a different light on the proceedings … However:

      this might be the most human I’ve ever seen him.

      Might be an indication of the claims above?

      • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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        22 hours ago

        If you’re implying that he’s breaking down and becoming human, I wouldn’t go that far.