OAKS, Pa.—Former President Donald Trump cut a town hall in the suburbs of Philadelphia short after two guests collapsed in the packed auditorium due to heat.
Thousands gathered in the packed Greater Philadelphia Expo Center to hear Trump field questions from voters, filling the event hall to overflowing.
Around midway through the event, an attendee in risers to the left of the stage collapsed due to heat in the packed hall, at which point Trump suspended the rally to ensure that the attendee could receive medical attention. Very shortly thereafter, another attendee collapsed in the risers to the right of the stage.
The two sudden collapses appeared due to poor air conditioning in the building, and Trump requested that two huge side doors in the hall be opened to increase circulation and cool the room.
At that point, Trump indicated that he would end the Q&A segment of the event, spending the rest of the time playing music, speaking to voters onstage, and greeting the crowd. The unexpected move reduced the tension in the room noticeably in the wake of the back-to-back medical incidents, as the crowd had mostly been silent and focused on the emergencies.
Following the shift to a more relaxed atmosphere, and with increased air circulation, there were no more medical incidents. Instead, attendees spent the time chatting, dancing, and singing along.
While many left at the end of the question and answer segment, hundreds more stayed behind, with some describing the atmosphere as being similar to a “party.”
The songs played included “Ave Maria” by Luciano Pavarotti, “YMCA” by the Village People, and “Nothing Compares 2U” by Sinead O'Connor.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign was critical of the event and Trump’s demeanor during the music portion of the night.
Trump said the heat was a motivating factor in his changed approach to the evening.
The move to switch to music, while criticized by Trump’s rivals, was appreciated by those attendees who stayed behind after the main event.
“I thought it was great. I just said it was like a big party,” said Jennifer Black, a 54-year-old resident of the Philadelphia area.
Black said that the support for Trump in the dominantly blue area is “overwhelming” in comparison to 2020.
Others said that the event was a moment of humanity in the political setting.
“Halfway through the rally, he’s like, you know, we’re done with questions,” Bode Brewer, an 18-year-old voter, told The Epoch Times. “We are together as one. It was a sense that MAGA, as a group of people, is not just rooted in beliefs, but we are as a family: We stand together. We don’t let up. We are together as one people.”
Heather Miller, a 41-year-old former Democrat who was among those who asked Trump a question, said she was surprised by the unexpected turn of the event, saying she'd never been to a Trump event before this one.
“It did take a little bit of unusual turn, but everyone seemed happy. So I guess you just have to flow with it,” Miller told The Epoch Times.
This will be her first time voting for a Republican, and she said she’s not the only Democrat she knows who’s in the same spot this year.
Trump continues to have his best polling performance in the Keystone State.
As of Oct. 15, Trump leads the RealClearPolitics aggregate in the state by 0.3 percent—a far cry from the same dates in 2020 and 2016, when President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were leading by 6.4 percent and 8.2 percent respectively.
The elections in both cases were decided by around a point, with Trump pulling off an upset in 2016 before Biden narrowly reclaimed the state in 2020.
That’s why both campaigns have focused heavily on Pennsylvania.
Trump Fields Questions
The night began as expected, with Trump taking the stage a little later than his expected 6 p.m. appearance.Trump came onstage to his normal introduction of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” joining South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who moderated the event.
He fielded several questions from the audience, including one related to skyrocketing home prices that have put homeownership out of reach for many, particularly among Millennial and Generation Z Americans.
Asked how he would address the mounting difficulties of obtaining a mortgage, Trump presented a two-pronged approach that would focus on expediting zoning laws and red tape around building new homes, and on cutting interest rates to make the interest on mortgages affordable.
Additionally, Trump went back to what he sees as the core issue in inflation: energy policy, which has residual effects on almost every sector of the economy.
“We’re going to drill, baby, drill,” Trump said, repeating one of his most-used campaign lines.
Trump also took questions from Gold Star parents whose son was among those killed in the 2011 Chinook helicopter shootdown, which killed 30 service members, including 22 Navy SEALs from Seal Team Six.
The parents said that though 13 years have passed, they still haven’t received satisfactory answers about the incident.
He said he would establish a commission to look into the incident within his first seven days in office.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Trump replied. “In the first week ... we’re going to set up a commission and we will find out—because so many people are in the same position, they want to know what happened to their son or daughter—so in the first week, get ready to come over to the White House.”
Trump also addressed questions related to grocery costs, crime and safety, and illegal immigration.
