Did Donald Trump freeze on stage? That’s the big debate that’s raging after the orange Sith Lord’s appearance at Dallas, Texas on May 19, with his enemies— and even the Biden administration itself — arguing that he totally “glitched,” while Darth Tangerine claims that his bizarre 30+ second silence in the middle of his speech was for dramatic effect.
In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the evidence so you can judge for yourself. As soaring music, a track favored by QAnon, plays, Trump seems to stop and stare into the middle distance for a bizarrely long stretch. Did he really deliberately leave a longer gap than it takes to announce the next American Idol winner? Or did he actually loose his place on the teleprompter and suffer a Mitch McConnell Moment?
Brilliantly, the official Biden-Harris HQ X (formerly Twitter) account isn’t wasting any opportunity to roast Trump over this glitch and refuses to accept his claims it was intentional. Following the moment going viral, Trump reacted in just the way you’d expect: posting a rambling rant with random capitalization on Truth Social. The Biden-Harris account, though, maintains that he “did, in fact, freeze on stage.”
Now, this isn’t a phrase I have cause to say very much but… To be fair to Trump, there is a possibility he was simply letting the music build before getting to his next point. Buying into his own pomp and acting like he’s speaking prophetic words of wisdom that require a movie soundtrack is definitely his style, so it is actually difficult to say for certain whether he goofed or not.
What can we say for certain? That Trump’s NRA rally was full of other hilarious goofs that he cannot weasel out of, because they’re captured forever so we can all bask in their mind-bending glory. We’re used to Trump stumbling over his words or just straight-up lying at this point, but this one really takes the cake. At one point during his speech, Trump seemed to believe that his uncle was “the longest-serving president.” Um, we’re pretty sure you’re not FDR’s nephew, Donald.
My personal favorite, though? The moment when Trump appeared to do his best Elmo impression and referred to himself in the third person. “Yes, oh yes and quickly says President Trump,” as if he’s suddenly reading some MAGA children’s story to the assembled crowd of gun nuts. Someone tell him it never works when the Trump Brigade try to be Dr. Seuss. Even if he is the secret lovechild of the Grinch and the Lorax.
All in all, this NRA rally was like a greatest hits performance of all your (least) favorite Trumpisms. Maybe he froze, maybe he didn’t, but let’s just say that President Pinocchio’s nose was certainly growing when he claimed at this same event to be a “better physical specimen” than Barack Obama.
