Donald Trump ‘s latest town hall in Pennsylvania turned into a spontaneous playlist concert Monday after two medical emergencies in the crowd interrupted the evening’s event.
The 78-year-old Republican presidential nominee was about half an hour into the event in the Philadelphia suburbs when a medical emergency brought a question-and-answer session to a halt. Noticing a disruption in the crowd, he asked for a doctor to be brought in.
As the man was treated by medics and taken out on a stretcher, Trump acknowledged how hot the rallies can get and asked for an instrumental version of Ave Maria to be played over the sound system.
Just as he began to launch back into the Q and A, however, a second medical incident began taking place, and members of the crowd shouted for help.
“It looks like, sir, she’s on her feet and walking out. Let’s encourage her,” Gov. Kristi Noem , the moderator for the evening, asked of the crowd as the woman was tended to.
“I know it’s really warm in here. Everybody agrees that it’s really warm in here. We’ve got a lot of people who love America. I’m going to ask that if you have a chair, maybe sit so everyone around you can sit and still see the president.”
After the second incident, Trump joked with the crowd, asking whether “anybody else would like to faint.”
He then changed course for the evening, asking them “not do any more questions.”
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
“Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into a music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?” he said, requesting that Ave Maria be played again, this time the rendition sung by Luciano Pavarotti .
Trump then suggested they could wrap up the evening with the audience in their seats. He called for the Village People’s YMCA and it blasted through the loudspeakers, the usual signal that Trump is done speaking and is ready to leave. But he remained onstage.
For the next 40 minutes or so, Trump shimmied and bopped around the stage, to an eclectic playlist of songs from his curated playlist he often talks about — including Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U , Rufus Wainwright’s cover of Hallelujah and Guns N’ Roses’ November Rain .
While he briefly spoke at times, the remainder of the town hall was mostly listening to Trump’s playlist. Some attendees began to filter out of the building, but many remained until the end.
Finally, Trump left the stage as Memory from the musical Cats played.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung on X called the event a total “lovefest” with everyone “so excited they were fainting” and said “nobody wanted to leave and wanted to hear more songs from the famous DJT Spotify playlist!”
On his social media platform, Truth Social, the presidential hopeful called the town hall “amazing.”
Vice President Kamala Harris reposted her team’s X post Tuesday, which said Trump “appears lost, confused and frozen,” with the comment: “Hope he’s okay.”
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
