The Trump Dance Party
Nicolle Wallace was brilliant yesterday. She explained that Trump standing on stage at his Town Hall (the whole point of which is to take questions from the audience), stopping taking questions and instead playing music for 39 minutes – while wandering around and swaying to the music – was so utterly horrible that just mentioning it doesn’t do it justice. That you had to actually see it -- for 39 minutes – to understand what standing around to music for 39 minutes really was. And so…she played the video of the entire 39 minutes on her show!! They put it in a box in the corner of the screen, and had a timer running to show how much time had passed. Occasionally, she’d reference it (“Okay, we’re 12 minutes in. Still 27 minutes to go.”) And every once in a while, they would make the small box the main, large screen instead, so you would get the full view.
It was tremendous television – and ghastly politics. It’s near-impossible to know why what took place happened. If Trump was tired, he’d have left after a couple minutes. But he stayed for 39 minutes. Same thing if he wasn’t up to answering questions. No reason to stay around for 39 minutes. If he was having a dementia moment, he wouldn’t have been chatting with others on stage and dancing and swaying to the music. This was all prefaced because the room was hot, and a couple of people had fainted – so, if that was a problem, why then keep everyone there for 39 minutes??
Man, and that's just 49 seconds. Imagine another half hour of it. And then, wait, no, don't leave, another seven minutes more after that.
In many ways, the oddest thing about it all was that it’s inexplicable. You can understand a 78-year-old man being tired and wanting to leave. But not then leaving? But clearly something was going on and not right, because showing up an hour late and making the crowd wait, then stopping all questions -- asking, “Who the hell wants to hear questions?” -- at the event where everybody was there specifically for asking questions, and then just standing around and swaying to music for 39 minutes is not only not normal – and profoundly weird (in case Trump is still wondering why he and “JD Vance” are called weird) – but also troubling for someone who is campaigning to be president, with three weeks to go. Whatever the reason – even if it’s just “because it’s what he wanted to do” and not one more indication of cognitive issues – it’s not normal behavior, even by Trump standards, which is saying a lot.
And yes, since it didn’t get reported much, and not to let it slide by in that passage above, not only did Trump stop taking question and just groove to the music for 39 minutes, he showed up an hour late.
And it was troubling for Trump not only for the 39-minute dance party (which is saying a lot), asking “Who the hell wants to hear questions?, but for coming on the heels of him refusing to do an interview with “60 Minutes” and refusing to have a second debate with Kamala Harris and canceling an interview with CNBC immediate after. Which overlap with Kamala Harris releasing her medical records, but Trump refusing to release his. And still refusing to release his medical records after the shooting event in Butler, Pennsylvania. It’s all an incredibly bad look. At any time. But especially with three weeks to go when asking people to make you president of the United States, commander-in-chief of the U.S. military and the most powerful man in the world.
And all this came before the very next day, yesterday, when Trump held a disastrous interview at the Chicago Economic Club, repeatedly not answering questions but veering off to other areas until the Bloomberg News moderator had to keep pulling him back to the questions, which remained unanswered.
It’s all a terrible look. But even just the 39-minutes of wandering around on a stage, swaying to music alone and then leaving is terrible enough.
As Trump stood there twisting the night away to "Ave Maria" and bopping to "Y.M.C.A.," I kept waiting for "Dancing Queen" kick him into high gear and then start a conga line through the room.
It cannot be overstated how truly disturbing Trump's 39-minute Dance Party was. And anyone who claims otherwise is not trying to fool you, they're trying to fool themselves.
The phrase, “Imagine if President Biden did this,” is one that could get overused profoundly when it comes to Trump, so it should be parceled out with care so that it doesn’t become just white noise in the background. But this is one of those times when it must be used.
Imagine if President Biden held a Town Hall to take questions, stop taking question, played music for 39 minutes, swayed and danced to it, and then left. It not only would be headline stories on every news channel – including many throughout the world – it should be. Because it’s disturbing, abnormal behavior. But why stop there? It doesn’t just have to be a comparison to another 80-year-old man. Imagine if Kamala Harris just stood around at a rally for 39 minutes, swaying to music. Or if any president ever did. Or if any Senate candidate or Congressional candidate or mayor candidate, or if a local city council candidate did. Or if Barack Obama did when just making his speech the other day.
Or what if even it was simply your grandfather, and he suddenly stopped whatever he was in the middle of doing with the family and a roomful of visitors, put on music and instead just stood there, and occasionally started swaying and dancing to it for 39 minutes, periodically wandering around the room chatting with a few people, and then finally stopped and left??
You might quietly walk over, and gently say, "Grandpa, may I please have the car keys."
Or y'know, maybe it was something else entirely. And Trump was just channeling his inner spirit. And following his bliss.
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