Donald Trump called into JD Vance’s town hall on Thursday to ask his running mate a pertinent question: “How brilliant is Donald J Trump?”
The Ohio Senator took part in a town hall in Detroit on Thursday with NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo, where he fielded questions from Republicans, Democrats and undecided voters.
But as well as addressing hard-hitting election issues surrounding immigration, the economy and abortion, the Republican vice presidential nominee was bizarrely hit with a seemingly unexpected question from Trump.
“We have a call right now from former President Donald John Trump,” Cuomo said as Vance burst out laughing and shook his head.
“Mr President, I know there’s a little bit of a delay. Can you hear us, and what is your question for the senator?” the moderator asked.
“Well, I can hear you Chris and I do have a question,” Trump responded. “And I think it will be quite an interesting one. The answer should be easy.”
With a slight pause, Trump continued: “How brilliant is Donald J Trump?”
While Vance chuckled, some of the crowd failed to crack a smile as the camera panned around the room.
“Well, first of all sir, this is supposed to be undecided voters. I would hope I have your vote of all people,” the senator teased.
“First of all sir,” Vance repeated, “you’re very brilliant and we both agree… we both agree that it’s important to have very smart people running our government.
The Republican then fawned over his running mate, praising the “true brilliance of Trump” and telling an anecdote about a warm interaction between his wife Usha Vance and the former president at an event forum near Cincinnati earlier this year.
“That’s very nice and I appreciate it,” Trump said, before posing a second question.
“I watched, believe it or not, CNN last night. And, in watching it, I watched the town hall with Kamala [Harris]. How brilliant is Kamala?”
“Oh, that’s a very tough one sir,” Vance said. “I’m supposed to say…”
“Bad stuff…,” Trump interjected, as Vance and the audience sniggered.
“Don’t say it, I don’t want to hear it,” the former president said before boasting about his own campaign’s performance. “JD is doing a fantastic job; could not be happier. He’s really captivated people and they love him. We’re leading by a lot, you know, the early voting… We’re leading by a landslide, as they say.”
Hours earlier, Trump had taken another swipe at the vice president, calling her performance in the CNN town hall in Pennsylvania on Wednesday evening “horrible.”
“I’ve never seen anyone so inept at speaking,” Trump told Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin.
“Her performance was horrible. I’ve never seen anything like it for a high level politician – I can’t even believe it.”
The former president also attempted to brush off claims that he is a “fascist,” following comments made by his former chief of staff John Kelly and then Harris.
“She did call me a fascist and everybody knows that’s not true. They call me everything, until something sticks,” he said of the vice president. “And he (Kelly) ended up being a weak guy because all bullies end up being weak.”
