Detroit
Former United States (US) president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump paced his rally stage in silence for nearly 20 minutes Friday (Oct 18) night in Detroit after his microphone cut out.
A report by the news agency Associated Press said that Trump was about to wax on about one of his favourite subjects, tariffs, working up to naming it by first teasing “the most beautiful word in the dictionary.”
Very quickly afterwards, the sound went down.
'Won't pay the bill for this stupid company...'
Trump roamed around the stage for some 20 minutes, before returning to the microphone after the audio started working again.
“Well thank you, everybody. Thank you. So now what happens is I won’t pay the bill for this stupid company that rented us this crap. I won’t pay the bill and then we’ll have a story that Trump didn’t pay the bill,” the Republican presidential candidate said.
Second time in a week that Trump's event was interrupted
This was the second time in a week that Trump's event was interrupted. On Monday, Trump cut off a town hall and instead played music after multiple people in the audience needed medical attention, the Associated Press report said.
Trump is famously attuned to his image and the mechanics of his rallies, often commenting on the microphones and teleprompters. Aides are known to travel with multiple backup mics — though it was unclear why they weren’t able to locate one immediately on Friday.
Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris' campaign used a video of the Friday interruption (at Trump's rally) to push a message that the Republican may not have the energy to be president again.
“An exhausted Trump awkwardly walks in circles on stage after his microphone stops working,” Harris' campaign said in a post on X.
(With inputs from agencies)