The first casualty was an inconvenience that halted Donald Trump for a minute or two while midflight answering questions about home prices, the border and small business.
By the time the second person collapsed in the heat of the overcrowded exhibition hall, the former president knew he had a problem. A few people at the back of the hall were making for the exits and he knew he needed to pump up the crowd. It was time for plan B.
‘Let’s not do any more questions,’ Trump said to his audience in suburban Philadelphia. ‘Let’s just listen to music.’
First came Ave Marie, Schubert’s masterpiece that is a favorite at weddings and funerals, as Trump stood center stage looking out into the middle distance.
Then came Pavarotti and James Brown. And finally, inevitably, the Village People singing ‘Y.M.C.A.’
Donald Trump abandoned his town hall with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to play music after two people were taken ill at the event in the Philadelphia suburbs
It was a reminder that Trump is one of the most unpredictable politicians on the circuit.
And, for his critics, a sign that the politics has perhaps always been secondary to the show.
It was not supposed to be like this. The event on Monday evening was billed as a ‘town hall’ and a chance for Trump to answer questions on the economy from voters who could decide the outcome of the whole election.
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But after just 32 minutes of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem gamely chairing the question and answer session he was alerted to a commotion in the crowd.
‘A doctor please,’ said Trump.
The crowd fell silent as a medic went about their work.
‘This is a little bit of a rough one,’ said Trump, looking down from the stage in concern.
Minutes later, after an audience member named Heather had managed to ask a question about the border, a second person was taken ill. People around her waved their campaign signs like fans.
With another pause in proceedings, people at the back of the crammed and overheated hall saw their chance and began streaming for the exit.
‘While we’re waiting … So we had a beautiful evening, and I don’t know if they could get this song up quickly, but if they could work really quickly backstage while we’re waiting … Ave Maria,’ said Trump, explaining that it provided a magical moment at his rally in Butler a week ago.
‘If you can get it Justin, let’s go.’
Noem didn’t know what to do at first but soon got into the groove
It was YMCA, by the Village People, that really got everyone grooving
He directed his staff to put up his ‘favorite chart’ (showing blue and yellow peaks of illegal immigration, and which he credits with saving him from an assassin’s bullets) and so it was that Trump hatched an impromptu music fest.
There was Ave Maria, first a wordless version much to Trump’s displeasure, and then one featuring Pavarotti.
At one point an aide appeared at his side with a piece of paper, allowing Trump to play D.J. by picking out a playlist, analogue-style: Guns N Rose’s ‘November Rain’ and ‘Memory’ from the show Cats, could be seen.
And then it was one of Trump’s favorite songs of all time: ‘It’s a Man’s World,’ featuring Pavarotti and James Brown.
Trump swayed slightly looking into the middle distance as Noem clutched her hands to her sides. If she was wondering what was going on, the audience did not care: They were all smiles and cheers, waving red MAGA hats in the air.
Ever the showman, Trump now had to work out how to exit the stage.
‘We could so another question or two, if you’d like … probably you want to do one,’ he said doubtfully.
‘But it ends so beautifully. How about this? We’ll play YMCA .. but listen, whatever you can do, get out there. We have to win. This is important.’
This was not the how the evening was supposed to go. And Trump did at least remember to rally the troops.
‘If we win Pennsylvania we win the whole thing,’ he said.
An aide appeared with a list of songs, including ‘November Rain,’ ‘Memory,’ from the show Cats, and ‘Point of no Return’
The event was billed as a ‘town hall’ – it turned into a music fest
The crowd lapped it up, knowing they were getting a unique Trump moment
With the familiar disco strains of the Village People playing, Trump and Noem turned into goofy teens, throwing shapes as the remains of the crowd joined in or drifted away.
Even by Trump’s own warped yardstick of campaign events this was a strange one. He suggested his answer to bringing down house prices was to ‘drill baby drill’; went on a digression about why he liked to talk about the ‘late great’ Hannibal Lecter (‘because he was a sick puppy – and we have a lot of sick puppies coming into the country’); and he promised to halt the war in Ukraine ‘while president-elect,’ all during the normal part of the event.
Yet, Trump cannot afford to waste time in Pennsylvania.
Vice President Kamala Harris was campaigning in Erie at the same time, as both campaigns make the Keystone State their number-one priority.
A J.L. Partners poll for DailyMail.com revealed on Sunday that the race could not be tighter.
The two candidates are locked on 47 percent of the vote each.
Fans lined up for hours to bag a spot inside the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center and Fairgrounds on Monday afternoon to hear Trump
It was standing room only inside the exhibition hall as thousands of people packed in
And our election model predicts that Pennsylvania is likely to be the tipping point state: Whoever wins here is on their way to winning the 270 Electoral College votes they need to claim the White House.
Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the state by more than 40,000 votes eight years ago. But in 2020 it swung back to the Democrats, as locally-born Joe Biden beat Trump by about 80,000 votes.
Both sides are pouring time, money and bodies into the state as they leave nothing to change.
Trump ally Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has taken up residence in Pittsburgh as his American political action committee takes on some of the Republican ground game.
Rich Landis, 75, who mows lawns for a living, said it all came down to the economy for voters in the state.
‘I gotta buy so much gas it’s killing me, besides everything else,’ he said.
‘It’s just how many businesses are closing around our area?’
Meanwhile, all he hears from Harris is that he should be pleased with the way the country is going.
‘All I hear is lies. Some are Republican lies, but most of them are Democrat,’ he said.
‘They’re telling me the borders closed. They’re telling me the economy’s great. Yeah, right!’
Pennsylvania has more electoral votes, 19, than any of the other six battleground states. And so its voters have enjoyed an outsized amount of attention with 46 stops by the two candidates, according to a tally kept by the Associated Press.
President Joe Biden will be at a fundraiser in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Harris is back in the state Wednesday and Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, has two events in Pennsylvania during the week.