Donald Trump said “hello” to a packed audience gathered to hear his speech.
The remarks came Friday night at a rally in one of the nation’s largest battleground states in Detroit, where a 17-minute audio glitch made it impossible to communicate with the audience gathered to hear the former president’s speech. It was done after.
This is the second time in a week that Trump’s rally has gone off track. The failure is notable because it comes in the final weeks of a bitter campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris, who, based on most opinion polls, is the bottleneck in the race. -neck.
While the audio was off, Trump walked around the stage and occasionally spoke with nearby technical staff and rallygoers. However, he did not leave the stage and go into the crowd.
After the sound started working again, President Trump said, “I’m not going to pay this stupid company my bill,” referring to the unnamed audio company he blamed for the fuss. “If it happens again, I will sue the company.”
The rally continued for another hour, with President Trump at times struggling to move forward after his initial audio glitch. Even though the sound system was fully restored 20 minutes into the event, he still complained that he “had to scream” to get his message across.
Trump later joked that he would like Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers to join him on stage, but that he didn’t want him to speak into a “shitty” microphone. Mr. Rogers did not join Mr. Trump on stage.
On Tuesday, Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania was changed to a music night because two attendees had health issues, and Trump told his staff to listen to music from a personally hand-picked Spotify playlist. I instructed them to play a 30-minute song.
At the rally-turned-concert event, Trump swayed on stage for long periods without speaking much, prompting criticism from Democrats who said the 78-year-old was unfit to serve as president again. It created an awkward scene that amplified the situation.
“Voters are just beginning to care, and objectively, we end up with a diminished picture of Trump rambling for hours, gibberish, freezing for 30 minutes, and making people listen to his Spotify playlist.” “This is strange, and voters are increasingly concerned,” Harris’ campaign adviser said after the Pennsylvania rally.
After Friday night’s audio failure, President Trump’s Detroit rally quickly turned into a standard event for the former president.
Much of the event focused on illegal immigration, a typical focus of the Trump campaign, and spotlighted high-ranking Detroit officials such as boxer Tommy “The Hitman” Hearns and rapper Trick Trick.
After acknowledging both men on stage, President Trump said, “After talking to ‘Hitman’ and ‘Trick Trick,’ it seems kind of boring to go back to Kamala.”
From there, he went on to sum up his complaints and attacks on Harris, who has trailed President Trump by a narrow margin of error in most polls.
If he returns to the White House, Trump has long promised to end “transgender madness” and end the war in Ukraine, without specifying how, but illegal immigrants are also a key cog in the machine. He said he would crack down on the In President Trump’s economic message.
“Kamala destroyed our borders,” he said. “She destroyed our economy.”
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign blasted Trump on social media Friday night for posting a video in which he appears to have fallen asleep, his eyes closed, during a break earlier in the day’s campaign campaign.
NBC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.