Trump's town hall ends with extended 'music festival' while he's on stage: NPR

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, holds a town hall meeting at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania, on October 14.

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At a Trump town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, on Monday evening, things went from a question-and-answer session to a bizarre musical event in which Trump stood in front of his audience for a long time while songs played over the sound system.

The town hall portion of the event lasted nearly an hour and was moderated by Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota and a Trump ally.

The questioners were all friendly to Trump, asking how he could reduce inflation and boost small businesses.

City Hall was stopped twice due to incidents in which the crowd called for a medic. The audience shouted that it was too hot in the room.

While paramedics tended to those affected by the heat, Trump and Noem waited on the stage. During the first intermission, the crowd sang “God Bless America” ​​together, after which Trump asked for someone to play the song “Ave Maria” on the sound system. Soon an instrumental version began playing.

Shortly after town hall operations resumed, there was another emergency call for a paramedic.

“It's steaming in here!” a man shouted as they waited for help, and the instrumental Ave Maria played again until help arrived for the stricken woman.

Trump joked about the heat in the room: “I'm personally enjoying this. We're losing weight. We could do this and lose 4 or 5 pounds.”

Trump then demanded that his “favorite map” be displayed on screens – the map of border crossings that had been shown in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 when a suspected assassin shot at Trump, hitting his ear. He also asked someone to play a version of “Ave Maria,” sung by Luciano Pavarotti.

“We play a little music. Let’s make it a music festival,” he said.

Trump remained on stage until the song ended and then cut short the question-and-answer portion of the evening.

“Let’s not ask any more questions. Let’s just listen to music,” he said.

Trump later urged the audience to stick around.

“By the way, if we go, you don’t have to go so fast. You can sit and listen. We'll play a few songs. Some of you will be a little warm, but that's okay. It's not a bad thing. And if you want, we'll do that, but I think it would be nice, a little different.

“I think it would be great, sir,” Noem said.

“It’s nice to have imagination – isn’t it a nice thing to have imagination?”

Trump remained on stage for more than half an hour as a number of songs were played, including “Hallelujah” by Rufus Wainwright and “November Rain” by Guns N' Roses.

On Tuesday, Trump called the evening “amazing” in a post on his Truth Social account.

“The question and answer session was almost over when people were fainting from excitement and heat,” he said. “While we were waiting, we started playing music and just kept going. So different, but in the end it was a GREAT EVENING!”

The town hall came at a time when the election season was still three weeks away and Trump and Vice President Harris remain statistically undecided, according to most polls. Both candidates deliver their final messages, providing a contrast to their rival as they crisscross the United States. Trump will give a speech on the economy in Chicago on Tuesday and record a town hall with female voters on Fox News that will air on Wednesday. Harris is hosting a town hall with popular radio host Charlamagne tha God to reach black male voters.