I wrote the other day about Trump’s weird “freeze” during his speech to the NRA, when he just stood there for 30 seconds making faces while the music rose. He claimed that he always did this and I contradicted it saying I’ve never seen it happen. Well, a reader pointed out that I have seen it happen, it’s just that usually there is cheering and applauding for that 30 seconds.
He builds up to the line “greatest nation in the history of the world.”
The music starts.
He stands for about 30 seconds, looking around, as the crowds cheer wildly and chant his name.
Then he proceeds with the “We are a nation in decline” line.
ANGRY MARMOT [Dkos commenter]:
See for instance the laboriously dramatic musical pause-for-effect from 1:26:57 to 1:27:23 here (Waco, March 25, 2023) and from 1:09:42 to 1:10:31 here (Greensboro, March 2, 2024), always before the “we are a nation in decline” line.
The only difference in the “freezing”/“teleprompter fail” video is that, while Trump is doing what he always does, with the exact same timing he always uses …
No one cheers and yells his name during those 30 seconds. There is dead silence.
That’s what makes it look weird. He’s acting as if there are cheers going on for about 30 seconds, when there aren’t, and then proceeding, as usual. But if someone overdubbed the usual crowd sounds over those 30 “frozen” seconds, that video would look just like any of his other speeches.
In fact, if there is anything weird about Trump’s behavior in that clip, it is that he’s NOT doing anything differently. He’s doing everything rigidly and by rote, and not showing enough flexibility to adjust to the change in circumstances.
Or maybe, most likely, the teleprompter was not glitching at all, but working perfectly — the way it is programmed to — doing the usual timing and allowing for 30 seconds of cheering and showing a blank screen for about 30 seconds, forcing Trump to wait for the next line to come up.
I stand corrected. He didn’t freeze like Mitch McConnell. He just didn’t know how to cover a 30 second pause for applause that didn’t come. So he just stood there. That makes sense.