From the moment he announced his first run for president in 2015, Donald Trump rallies have been a spectacle. He’s had protesters thrown out, reinvented history (no airports were involved in the Revolutionary War), complained about his teleprompter, ranted about electricity and sharks, and generally put on a show his supporters love and the rest of the world sees as a blend of comedy and tragedy.
In his second term, there’s been more attention to Trump’s health and mental state, spurred by such clues as bruises on his hands, and what many viewers call “glitches,” when he suddenly seems to lose control of his speech. There are also observations by those who think he seems more tired or confused.
Now Trump is on a midterm rally spree, traveling around the country to hold events that his party hopes will boost candidates to help maintain Republican control of Congress, and the oddities really stand out.
Trump Keeps Having Verbal Stumbles
Anyone who speaks frequently in public is likely, sooner or later, to have a goof-up. They might misspeak, misremember a statistic, mix up a name, or struggle with a dry throat.
Trump is no exception, but some of his flubs in the past have been notable, such as when he referred to reggae artist Nicky Jam as “she,” and going off-script to talk about random thoughts.
Lately, he seems to be having a lot of moments where he simply loses words and replaces them with guttural sounds. In the clip below, Trump is talking about former South Carolina Governor Nicki Haley and her appointment as Ambassador to the United Nations, but instead of saying her name, he says something more like, “Euuugh.”
In another incident at a different rally the following day, Trump was speaking about Congress again, asserting his view that if Republicans don’t maintain control of the Senate, it will instead be held by “Communists.” He and his cohort have been attacking Michigan’s Democratic candidate for Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, over religion, claiming that the candidate’s Islamic beliefs are inherently terroristic. Trump seemed to have some trouble with the transition between the two ideas, though.
“If you don’t want communists controlling the U.S. Senate, which is between,” he begins, then the next sound is something like, “jayyyg.”
“How about the gentleman from a place called Michigan? He’s a jihadist.”
El-Sayed has expressed that his religion would not rule his votes as an elected official, that he would be beholden to the voters. Nonetheless, the bigotry, at this point, stands out less than Trump’s struggle to express it.
Who’s Really On The Ballot This Midterm?
Trump has been telling voters to vote as though he’s on the ballot himself. He says that when he’s on the ballot, the voter turnout is 49% better than when he isn’t.
It’s certainly true that voter turnout has been higher in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 elections (when he was on the ballot) than in 2018 and 2022, which were midterm elections. In fact, Fair Vote reports that on average, presidential elections pull about 50% more voters (60% of eligible voters instead of 40%) than midterms, as a matter of course.
More concerning is that Trump seems to get confused about when, exactly, his name is on the ballot, and has to do a mid-sentence rewording, and it still doesn’t make any sense.
“Every year I was on the ballot, we killed in the midterms…..the equivalent of the midterms.”
While Trump says to pretend he’s on the ballot, his rallies do seem more focused on himself and his own agendas than on the candidates he’s ostensibly rallying for.
This was particularly noticeable at Monday’s Mississippi rally, in which Trump called Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith back to the stage after her initial words to the crowd. Though she had already spoken, she didn’t take the opportunity to again request the support of the crowd — instead, she quickly asked attendees to agree that Trump is the best president, then fled the stage.
Heckling, Protests, & Violence
Trump’s rallies continue to draw protests, and multiple incidents of violence have broken out, with his supporters physically attacking attendees who dare to speak against him.
At a protest last week, Trump thanked a supporter for punching a person who appeared to be a protester.
“That was great…I loved that. I watched that…That was incredible. Wow. That was unbelievable…Who’s the guy that threw that punch?”
On Monday night, Trump responded to a heckler himself. Someone in the crowd can be heard shouting out exactly where he’d like Trump to “shove your ballroom,” and Trump calls back, “Go home!” Then, as the crowd screams in support, Trump makes the unsupported claim that protestors are being paid $250 by George Soros to show up, and says that protesters are prosecuted and have their lives ruined for doing so.
He adds, “We don’t usually press it too hard.”
It’s not clear how many people have actually been prosecuted for protesting at Trump’s events, although the tally for his rally in Kansas last week was 11 “uninvited individuals” were “escorted out,” and one was arrested for refusing to “comply with a lawful order to regulate traffic” near the “designated free-speech area” according to KWH.
What’s Going On With Trump Rallies?
Early voting ends soon, and election day is November 3rd.
This election could be decisive, either cementing a Congress that will rubber-stamp Trump’s every whim, or one that will fight against his agenda. With two years left in his term, there’s a lot on the line.
For Trump, a Democratic majority could mean pushback on anti-immigration and anti-LGBTQ+ agendas, or an end to some of his pet projects, such as his ballroom and his vendetta against the Kennedy Center.
It could even mean yet another impeachment, as well as stronger barriers against any efforts to maintain power after his term ends, or further interfere with procedures in the next presidential election.
Are his increasingly strange behaviors at rallies a sign that he’s stressing over the possibilities, or is he just exhausted from constant campaigning?
