Donald Trump has hit out at Joe Biden in a furious response to appearing to freeze for more than 30 seconds mid-speech at the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual meeting at the weekend.
The 77-year-old former president was encouraging gun-toting Texans to cast their votes ahead of November’s presidential election during his address in Dallas when, all of a sudden, he fell silent.
President Joe Biden’s supporters were quick to attack Mr Trump with his campaign team branding him “feeble” on X, hurling the Republican’s mental competency into question.
Mr Trump, however, has claimed the whole thing is a “made up Biden campaign story” in a rant on Truth Social.
“The Biden Campaign… put out a Fake Story that I ‘froze’ for 30 seconds, going into the ‘Musical Interlude’ section, when in actuality, the 30 to 60 second period of silence is standard in every one of my Speeches where we use the Music,” he said, with a typical sporadic use of capital letters.
Mr Trump attempted to spin the events to attack the president, who has often faced criticism surrounding his memory and mental fitness.
“The reason they came up with this Disinformation is that Biden freezes all the time, can’t put two sentences together, and can rarely find his way off the stage without help. Donald Trump doesn’t freeze!,” he added.
On Saturday, Mr Trump began praising Texans and their Wild West heritage in front of what he claims was a “record crowd” of “enthusiastic patriots”.
Silence can be a useful tool to emphasise points and ensure key messages land. However, Mr Trump wrapped up the section of his speech and didn’t say another word for a further 30 seconds.
“The Texas spirit of proud independence was forged by cowboys and cattle hands, ranchers and rangers, oil workers, soldiers and brave, brave, brave, pioneers,” he told the crowd of gun owners.
“Many came here with nothing but the boots or their feet, the clothes on their back, and the gun in their saddle. Together they helped make America into the single greatest nation in the history of the world,” Mr Trump concluded before his half-minute pause.
A feeble Trump nearly falls down on stage after he leans on his podium too hard and then goes on an angry rant calling his event workers “crappy” pic.twitter.com/4fzPZfgpuZ
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) May 18, 2024
It wasn’t the only moment in Mr Trump’s speech which was attacked by Biden and his campaign team.
The former president clung to his podium as it wobbled on stage, which led to Biden’s campaign team commenting that he lost his footing for leaning on his podium “too hard”.
Trump, however, claimed that it was the podium was faulty – touting his own strength and reflexes which stopped it toppling over.
“As far as the podium, I actually stopped it from falling due to good reflexes and strength, two elements which Joe Biden does not possess,” he said on Truth Social.
Following the faux pas on stage, he appeared to poke fun at the president, and quipped that it “keeps tilting further left… like too many other things,” he said as he inspected the platform.
