Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump took a kind of break from demonizing migrants and calling for a military crackdown on his political opponents on Monday night. After three audience members at his town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania experienced medical emergencies, Trump announced there would be no more questions and launched an impromptu listening party instead.
Trump at his town hall: “Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Who the hell wants to hear questions?” pic.twitter.com/vc9aZK5YRZ
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) October 14, 2024
The Trump campaign said three people were taken from the rally to an area hospital. Their condition is not clear, nor is why they apparently collapsed.
Initially, the town hall was paused after the first medical incident so a doctor could attend to the person who fell ill. Trump then requested “Ave Maria” be played while everyone waited around — and campaign staff played an instrumental version of the song.
NBC News reports that “the room was toasty” and that “after the second incident, a handful of people in the crowd yelled ‘open the doors’”:
Trump then asked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who was moderating the event, to get someone to open the door. … Trump appeared to talk to a Secret Service agent to see what could be done. He then told the crowd: “For security reasons, they can’t [open the doors]. But you know what, I said just open them. Because anybody comes through those doors, you know what’s going to happen to them.” The crowd cheered. …
The two of them joked that the building could not afford air conditioning because of the economy. Trump cracked another joke, saying: “Would anybody else like to faint? Please raise your hand.”
After the second medical incident, Trump re-requested “Ave Maria” but said he wanted the Luciano Pavarotti vocal version this time — so that got played. The Associated Press reports what happened next:
Once Noem announced the second person was up and moving, Trump spoke for a few more minutes before calling for music to be played, as many in the crowd lingered, unsure whether he was done speaking.
“Those two people who went down are patriots,” Trump said after the music. “We love them. And because of them, we ended up with some great music, right?”
Trump suggested they could wrap up the evening with the audience in their seats, enjoying some musical selections rather than hearing him answer more questions.
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.
More music, more dancing.
“Nobody’s leaving,” Trump said. “What’s going on?”
For ten more songs, he remained on stage, “sometimes swaying along to the music while staring into the distance,” per NBC. Trump finally left the stage to “Memory” from Cats.
Here’s the playlist:
After multiple people passed out at this Trump Townhall, instead of taking questions, he just played the following songs while standing and swaying on stage:
Ave Maria
Time To Say Goodbye
It’s A Man’s World
YMCA
Hallelujah
Nothing Compares 2 U
An American Trilogy
Rich Men North… https://t.co/JxYjWKQBpJ
— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) October 15, 2024
And here’s some footage what it looked like from crowd level:
A thread of what became of the Trump Townhall this evening.
Sound up.🧵
We begin with a classic Pavarotti: pic.twitter.com/D8W0bChajR
— Dasha Burns (@DashaBurns) October 15, 2024
More operatic sounds with Andrea Bocelli “Time to Say Goodbye” pic.twitter.com/5oa1Ug8l5K
— Dasha Burns (@DashaBurns) October 15, 2024
“Hallelujah” – Rufus Wainwright pic.twitter.com/KMaMd73Kxw
— Dasha Burns (@DashaBurns) October 15, 2024
“Nothing Compares 2 U” – Sinead O’Connor pic.twitter.com/wirjz4TrQS
— Dasha Burns (@DashaBurns) October 15, 2024
“An American Trilogy” – Elvis pic.twitter.com/F7c3wBq0pR
— Dasha Burns (@DashaBurns) October 15, 2024
“November Rain” – Guns N’ Roses pic.twitter.com/4OtRAM6Oob
— Dasha Burns (@DashaBurns) October 15, 2024
The Trump campaign quickly celebrated the strange turn of events as a demonstration of how fun and relatable Trump is. The Harris campaign highlighted it as Trump being weird.
After a quick search, there does not appear to be any good polling on how much undecided Pennsylvanian voters value the ability of a presidential candidate to mull around on stage and listen to music for little apparent reason.
Some day this election year’s gonna end.
This post has been updated.
