DETROIT \u2014 For a second time this week, Republican nominee Donald Trump spent long stretches of a public appearance without speaking \u2014 this time not because he chose a long musical interlude, but because of a faulty microphone.<\/p>\n
Ten minutes into his speech here, Trump told the crowd: \u201cTo me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary, it\u2019s not love, it\u2019s not respect \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
He was warming up to say \u201ctariffs,\u201d but no one got to hear it. His microphone cut out.<\/p>\n
A Trump rally is a tightly controlled spectacle \u2014 the lights, the music, the setting all choreographed to aggrandize him. Thousands hang on his every word. His speeches have been interrupted by chants, hecklers and even gunfire, but production glitches are rare.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the stagecraft deflated. For 20 minutes, Trump paced the stage, voiceless, helpless, frustrated, alone. For a moment, he was no longer the entertainer.<\/p>\n
His fans tried to give him comfort.<\/p>\n
\u201cFight, fight, fight,\u201d they chanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo big to rig!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t stop Trump! Can\u2019t stop Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, Trump!\u201d<\/p>\n
He took in the adoring crowd, holding red and blue signs with the words \u201cBuild it in America\u201d and \u201cMake Detroit Great Again.\u201d Someone handed a second microphone. He tried to speak into it, but no sound came through. He threw up his hands.<\/p>\n
He tried talking into the lectern microphone again, but with no luck. He stood with his arms in front of him. He then shook his hand and put his arms out.<\/p>\n
A sign flashed on the screens: \u201cTechnical Difficulties Complicated Business.\u201d<\/p>\n
As \u201cEye of the Tiger\u201d began to play, Trump walked back to the lectern. He leaned into the microphone. \u201cHello,\u201d he said, his voice now booming through the crowd. The audience cheered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t pay the bill for this stupid company that rented us this crap,\u201d Trump said. \u201c<\/i>I won\u2019t pay the bill. And then we\u2019ll have a story that Trump didn\u2019t pay the bill to a contractor. No. When they do that kind of a job, don\u2019t pay the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump continued his stump speech, but the microphone was not far from his mind.<\/p>\n
As he reprised his apocalyptic language about the state of the country, he vowed that \u201cNovember 5th, 2024, will be Liberation Day in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then added: \u201cAnd when I get rid of this microphone at the end of this speech, it\u2019s going to be Liberation Day for Donald J. Trump because I\u2019m blowing out my voice to get this sucker done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minutes later, he thanked U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers but said he didn\u2019t want him to come onstage and use the \u201ccrappy microphone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/i>I want to keep him good and healthy,\u201d the former president said. \u201cI want him to have his voice tomorrow. When I get up tomorrow and I can\u2019t speak, I\u2019m going to say, \u2018Detroit did it to me.\u2019\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Trump returned to Detroit after Democrats seized on his remarks made here last week, when he compared the city to a \u201cdeveloping nation.\u201d Friday\u2019s rally was notably smaller than most of his events, with <\/b>few <\/b>standing beyond the rows of chairs in a downtown convention hall. Trump did not revise his dim view of the city but promised a brighter future under his leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou owe me big,\u201d he said, after recounting that a friend and supporter claimed that plans to build car plants in Mexico were on hold because of Trump\u2019s threatened tariffs. \u201cYou owe me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump mocked the pronunciation of Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019s name \u2014 \u201cI don\u2019t give a damn if I pronounce it right,\u201d he said \u2014 and repeated false claims about her record, such as misrepresenting reduced sentences that California voters approved during her tenure as the state\u2019s attorney general. He again misrepresented Immigration and Customs Enforcement statistics on immigrants with criminal histories, many of them serving sentences and in the country for many years, by claiming they had all been released by Harris.<\/p>\n
He repeated a pledge to launch a mass deportation operation using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a law last used to displace and detain Japanese Americans during World War II. In an interview earlier on Friday, Trump equated Japanese incarceration to the imprisonment of his supporters who are serving sentences for convictions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n
Also on Friday, Trump complained about his campaign schedule during a roundtable in Oakland County. \u201cYou think this is an easy life I have, right? I go from here, I say, \u2018Am I finished?\u2019 They say, \u2018No, sir, you have one more speech.\u2019 \u2018Oh, good. Where is it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Detroit speech, the former president encouraged his supporters to vote early by dramatizing how a supporter might encourage a friend named Jill to motivate her husband.<\/p>\n
\u201cJill, get your fat husband off the couch,\u201d he said. \u201cGet that fat pig off that couch. \u2026 Slap him around. Get him up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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