A protester briefly sabotaged a Trump rally yesterday by switching off the stage lights. Caught in the dark in mid-rant on the stage, Trump went first addressed the situation with sarcasm and then went into a rage — displaying the sort of seemingly erratic behavior that disqualified at least one candidate in the past.
From NBC News:
“Oh, I like that much better,” Trump said as the 5,000-plus-person crowd cheered and laughed. “Those lights were brutal. Are they coming from the dishonest press?”
When they came back on, he bellowed: “Don’t turn the lights on!”
It wasn’t just a matter of preference, but a lesson in business savvy.
“Plus we save on electricity, right? And because the lights don’t work, I won’t pay the rent — so better lighting and we don’t pay the rent. Right? right?”
He went on: “NO, GET THOSE LIGHTS OFF. OFF! Turn them off. They’re too bright. TURN THEM OFF! Turn them off. Let’s go, ready?”
Then Trump managed to turn the moment into a lesson about how the country should negotiate.
“That’s the way we have to negotiate for our country … the lights go off, it’s better,” he said. “We say we want the lights. Oh, it’s terrible, we take a big deduction off the rent because the lights are off, but it’s actually better. It’s the kind of sick thinking we really need for our country. Isn’t that right?”
In 2004, after winning the Iowa caucuses, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean became overly exuberant, shouting loudly into a microphone over the deafening cheers of the crowd in the room. To television viewers it appeared Dean was screaming into the mic. The so-called “Dean scream” apparently disqualified the former Vermont governor, who went on to lose the primary to Sen. John Kerry, who, of course, lost in the general to George Bush.
