“Hello,” Donald Trump said to a packed house gathered to hear him speak.
The greeting came after a 17-minute audio failure that left the former president unable to communicate with the audience that gathered to hear him speak Friday night in Detroit, at a rally in one of the nation’s largest swing states.
It’s the second time in the past week when a Trump rally has gone off the rails — failures notable because they come in the final weeks of a bruising campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris that, based on most public polling, has the race neck-and-neck.
While the audio was out, Trump walked around the stage, occasionally talking with technical staff and rally attendees nearby. He did not, however, leave the stage and go into the crowd.
“I won’t pay the bill for this stupid company,” Trump said once the sound began working again, referring to the unnamed audio company on which he placed blame for the snafu. “If it goes out again, I’ll sue the a– off that company.”
The rally went on for another hour, but Trump, at times, struggled to move on from the initial audio failures; 20 minutes into the event, he was still complaining that he had to “scream” to get his message across, even as the audio system had been fully restored.
Trump later went on to joke that he wanted Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers to join him on stage but didn’t want him to speak from the “crappy” mic. Rogers never joined Trump on stage.
In Pennsylvania on Tuesday, a Trump rally transformed into a music-listening session after two attendees had medical issues, which prompted Trump to direct staff to play roughly 30 minutes of songs from his personally curated Spotify playlist.
The rally-turned-concert left Trump swaying on stage with few words for an extended period of time, creating an awkward visual that amplified Democrats’ criticism that the 78-year-old was not fit to again serve as president.
“Voters are just starting to tune in, and objectively they are seeing a diminished Trump, one who rambles for hours at end, makes no sense, freezes for 30 minutes and forces people to listen to his Spotify playlist. It’s bizarre and raises more and more concerns for voters,” said a Harris campaign adviser after the Pennsylvania rally.
After the audio failure Friday night, Trump’s Detroit rally quickly turned into a standard event for the former president.
Much of the event focused on illegal immigration, a typical focus of Trump’s campaign, and highlighted Detroit dignitaries like boxer Tommy “The Hitman” Hearns and rapper Trick Trick.
“After talking to The Hitman and Trick Trick, it seems kind of boring going back to Kamala,” Trump said after acknowledging both on stage.
From there he continued his general grab bag of gripes and attacks on Harris, who has been trailing Trump by a slight margin within the margin of error of most public polling.
Trump said if he returns to the White House, he will end “transgender insanity,” stop the war in Ukraine — a promise he has long made with out specifying how — and crack down on illegal immigration, which also continues to be a key cog in Trump’s economic message.
“Kamala destroyed our border,” he said. “She destroyed our economy.”
The Harris campaign, meanwhile, took to social media Friday evening and hit Trump for appearing to fall asleep during an earlier campaign stop that day, posting video of him appearing to close his eyes.
NBC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
