Donald Trump jokes about being shot as he meets couple whose son died in Afghanistan
Donald Trump has joked about being shot during a meeting with a couple whose serviceman son died in Afghanistan.
With just three weeks to go until the US election, the Republican presidential nominee continued on the campaign trail at a “town hall” event in Oaks, Pennsylvania.
On stage with South Dakota Republican governor Kristi Noem, he attempted to woo voters in the crucial swing state – which went Democrat in 2020.
Donald Trump and South Dakota governor Kristi Noem dance during a town hall campaign event in Oaks, Pennsylvania.
Pic: Reuters
Trump meeting Mary and Charles Strange.
Pic: AP
At one point, Ms Noem introduced Mary and Charles Strange, whose son Michael was killed on 6 August 2011 when a Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan, killing 30 US soldiers and a service dog.
It became known as Extortion 17 and according to the Navy Seals Museum was “the greatest single loss of life to Naval Special Warfare [Command] since the Afghan War started in 2001”.
While the couple were being introduced and welcomed on stage, Mr Trump, having got off his seat, said: “It’s a little harder to get up since I got shot.
“It made it more difficult.
“Perhaps that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
To which Ms Noem, the event’s moderator, said: “Sir, they lost their son Michael.”
It was widely reported that during the attempt to assassinate him, Mr Trump’s ear was hit with a bullet.
Also during the town hall event, two people fainted, prompting Mr Trump to ask: “Would anyone else like to faint? Please raise your hand.”
Ms Noem said it happened because of how hot the room was, to which Mr Trump replied: “Personally I enjoy this… you lose weight.”
After reassuring the crowd that the two people who had fainted were fine, he then went on to ask if Ave Maria, sung by Luciano Pavarotti, could be played.
Mr Trump had asked for it to be played as the first person was attended to, roughly half an hour into the event, and it was then played again after the second incident as he stood on stage with Ms Noem waiting silently alongside him.
The former president cut short the question and answer session of the town hall, which was from preselected attendees, and proceeded to play music for 39 minutes.
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During this time, he swayed and danced to the music, including the popular track Y.M.C.A, occasionally stopping to talk to members of the crowd.
AP reported that Mr Trump’s playlist of songs included Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U, Rufus Wainwright’s cover of Hallelujah, Guns N’ Roses’ November Rain and Memory from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats.
His campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote on social media: “Nobody wanted to leave and wanted to hear more songs from the famous DJT Spotify playlist!”
Three weeks out
It comes as Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris continues to lead Mr Trump in nationwide polls, but questions remain over whether this will transfer into an election win.
Due to the nature of the US election, much of it relies on a few million voters in several key swing states, including Pennsylvania.
Democratic presidential nominee vice president Kamala Harris on stage during a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Pic: AP
The outcome remains a virtual coin toss as both candidates are hoping to draw out a definitive lead in the final weeks.
The Real Clear Politics website puts Mr Trump an average of 0.3 points ahead of Ms Harris in Pennsylvania and in the top battleground states – which will decide the election – Mr Trump is fractionally ahead in most.
Ms Harris recently rolled out former president Barack Obama, still one of the Democrats’ most effective political communicators, to attack her rival, as another former president, Bill Clinton, also hit the campaign trail in Georgia.
The anticipation had been that it would be a speech of significance.
The White House had announced two days earlier that the president was to deliver an evening address to the nation.
Traditionally the 9pm slot, interrupting the prime-time schedule on all the networks, is reserved for big news – usually international in nature.
Speculation had grown through the day that he may use the speech to address the prospect of US military action in Venezuela.
Read more: Trump has told us why he’s going after Venezuela
Instead, Trump took the big audience moment to make what was essentially a campaign speech but delivered at speed and combative in tone.
He blamed former president Joe Biden for the economy he inherited, on the “brink of ruin”, adding that he is “bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast”.
Speaking from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room, he said: “Our country is back, stronger than ever before. We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the nation has never seen.
“It’s not done yet, but boy are we making progress, nobody can believe what’s going on.”
Flanked by Christmas trees, but the speech hardly offered goodwill to all men
He was speaking against an increasingly challenging backdrop politically and economically.
Petrol prices are down, but the broad cost of living continues to rise, and people do not seem to be feeling the economic boom he claims to be unleashing.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, the highest it’s been for five years.
The only real announcement in his speech was a bonus for members of the military.
He said that the government would send cheques of $1,776 to all service members. The idea, he said, had only been finalised “about 30 minutes ago”, and the cheques were already in the post.
A fascinating speech – in tone if not substance
It was a very notable presidential address, not for what he announced because there was no big reveal. It was the tone which fascinated me.
The 9pm live address was his framing of his greatest hits from the past year, but delivered by an angry and frustrated man.
“Why are my polling numbers not better?” was the vibe he gave off.
“Why is the economy not doing better? Why are you – the voters – not feeling better off?”
Not actual quotes, but the clear subtext.
Read more: White House plaques attack ex-presidents
Trump’s address was a selection of his greatest hits. Pic: Reuters
It is his low polling, rising unemployment, the cost of living and inflation challenges which prompted this address.
Had he come out and, off script, with empathy, said – “look, I get it… it’s taking time for you to feel my economic success….” – if he’d said all that with meaning, I think that would have landed in a more sympathetic way.
Instead – reading, unusually, off a script, he came across as a very frustrated president and extremely defensive.
Here’s the worry for Team Trump. So often out and about with voters, I hear people say: “Oh I don’t really like his style, his language, his divisiveness. But he’s a businessman. He knows how to run the country and the economy.”
If he loses those people, he’s in real trouble. That’s especially true when combined with suggestions he is losing some in his base too – just listen to his fan-turned-foe, MAGA stalwart, Marjorie Taylor Green.
One last thought. There are observers who think Trump is kind of unhinged; losing his marbles a bit. The slightly strange tone of this speech will be evidence for them, for sure.
Donald Trump’s administration has installed new plaques beneath portraits of former presidents attacking his predecessors in the US president’s typical fashion.
Among the plaques, apparently written by Mr Trump himself, is one for Joe Biden reading: “Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst president in American history.”
The “Presidential Walk of Fame” at the White House features a picture or painting of every former US president – except Mr Biden, who has been replaced by a photo of an autopen.
Biden’s refers to ‘Sleepy Joe’. Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed Mr Biden was not mentally capable by the end of his term as president and his staff made decisions on his behalf, using an autopen to sign them off without his knowledge.
The device reproduces a person’s signature, allowing them to repeatedly sign documents without having to do so by hand each time.
The damning decoration goes on to falsely accuse Mr Biden of winning the “most corrupt election ever” and claims he made “unprecedented use of the autopen.”
Obama’s says he presided over a ‘stagnant economy’. Pic: Reuters
Another plaque refers to “Barack Hussein Obama” as “one of the most divisive political figures in American history.”
The plaque underneath Bill Clinton’s photo reads: “In 2016, president Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton, lost the presidency to President Donald J Trump!”
Even George W Bush, a fellow Republican – though not a Trump supporter – is given a badge of rebuke, with his plaque saying the former president “started wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which should not have happened.”
Bush’s plaque attacks the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pic: Reuters
The “Presidential Walk of Fame” is a recent addition to Mr Trump’s White House and displays the portraits along corridors between the Oval Office and the South Lawn.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the plaques were an “eloquent” description of each president’s legacy.
“As a student of history, many were written directly by the president himself,” she said.
It is the latest change to Mr Trump’s White House, which has seen the increased use of gold-coloured accents and gilded fixtures that mimic the decorations in Trump Tower in New York and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Rob Reiner’s son Nick made his first court appearance on Wednesday on two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents.
Wearing a suicide prevention smock and shackles, the 32-year-old did not enter a plea as he appeared from behind the glass wall of a custody area.
His next court appearance will be on 7 January.
As it happened: Nick Reiner makes first court appearance
Nick Reiner makes his first court appearance on murder charges in this courtroom sketch. Pic: Reuters/Mona Edwards
Nick Reiner spoke only to say, “yes, your honour” to agree to the date.
He was charged Tuesday with killing the 78-year-old actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced at a news conference.
Nick Reiner is being held without bail and could face the death penalty.
Along with the two counts of first-degree murder, prosecutors added a special circumstance of multiple murders, as well as an allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, a knife.
Speaking outside the court, Nick Reiner’s lawyer, Alan Jackson, called on the public not to “rush to judgement”.
Mr Jackson pointed to “complex and serious issues that are associated with this case” that needed to be thoroughly and “very carefully dealt with and examined”.
He added that it was a “devastating tragedy that has befallen the Reiner family”.
Rob Reiner, Michele Singer Reiner, Romy Reiner, Nick Reiner, Maria Gilfillan and Jake Reiner. Pic: JanuaryImages/Shutterstock
‘Unimaginable pain’
Nick Reiner’s two siblings Jake and Romy have released a statement, saying “words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day”.
“The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience,” they said.
“They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends. We are grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness, and support we have received not only from family and friends but people from all walks of life.”
The two asked for “respect and privacy” and for speculation to be treated with “compassion and humanity”.
Authorities have not disclosed a motive for the killings.
Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were found dead from apparent stab wounds in their home in the upscale Brentwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles.
The area near Rob Reiner’s home. Pic: AP
Read more from Sky News:
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Nick Reiner did not resist when he was arrested hours later near the University of Southern California, about 14 miles (22.5 kilometres) from the crime scene, according to police.
Rob Reiner was a celebrated director, whose work included some of the most memorable films of the 1980s and 1990s, including This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men.
He met Michele Singer, a photographer, movie producer and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, in 1989, while directing When Harry Met Sally.
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