Perhaps the so-called race to the White House should instead be the dance to the White House, at least according to Donald Trump’s recent episode at a Town Hall event.
In case you missed it (spare yourself now if you’re prone to second-hand embarrassment), the former president was ditched a Q&A session in favor of dancing to music while on stage in Oaks, Pennsylvania earlier this week.
While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a well-earned groove, Trump’s dance session took a turn for the unexpected when it surpassed the acceptable few minutes mark and began to near a whopping 40 minutes.
Yes, you read that right. A potential president led a 38-minute dance party soundtracked by tunes from his personal playlist. Footage from the Town Hall event shows Trump swaying, bopping, and robot-dancing along to songs like “YMCA”, “Ave Maria”, “Nothing Compares 2” and Rufus Wainright’s cover of “Hallelujah”, the last three of which are more tear-jerkers than hip-swingers, but I digress.
So taken was Trump by the music that he told the event’s moderator and dog destroyer Kristi Noem to “not do any more questions,” ditching important policy discussions to instead lead a nine-song dance party. It’s worth noting that the term “dance” is being used loosely here, since Trump’s movements are more inebriated sways and sporadic hand gestures rather than the kind of moves you’d see in Step Up.
The dance session was bizarre even for Trump, with Alyssa Farah Griffin saying it was “not normal” and Wainright himself calling it the “height of blasphemy.”
Now, Trump’s opponent wants a piece of the pie, coming in hot with a reaction to the dance party moment on social media. “Hope he’s ok”, Kamala Harris wrote on X, teetering the line between genuine concern and knowing sarcasm. The Democratic presidential candidate delivered the message in response to the dancing clips shared by Kamala HQ, and given that page’s history of trolling Trump, it’s only right that Harris herself landed the one-two punch on her opponent.
It’s one of multiple jabs leveled by Harris against Trump in recent days, with the vice president slamming her opponent for refusing to release his medical records, and criticizing his decision to back out of a 60 Minutes interview. Also joining in on the action was X page Republicans Against Trump, who took the clips of Trump dancing (if you could call it that) on stage as evidence that he is “unraveling in front of our eyes.”
Of course, the case could be made that Trump has been unraveling in front of our eyes for many months (or years), but his weirdness stretching beyond just his words and bizarre tangents and into physical movements feels like something of a turning point.
I’m not suggesting that the president should be decided by who has better dance moves (although a dance battle on election day would be entertaining), but if it’s between Trump’s robotic movements and that viral clip of Harris grooving along with a live band in tow, I think we know who would win what has now become the dance to the White House.
Published: Oct 16, 2024 03:15 am