Trump Moseys Around Stage For 20 Minutes As Microphone Cuts Out

Donald Trump had another odd rally Friday night in Detroit as he wandered around the stage after his microphone stopped working for some 20 minutes.

When the connection was finally restored he complained to the audience he wasn’t going to pay the bill for “this crap.” Trump is already under fire for owing more than $750,000 to various cities for past rally costs.

While Trump ambled around the stage, rarely interacting with supporters surrounding him, a sign onscreen alerted: “Technical Difficulties. Complicated Business.” Looking frustrated, his back was often turned to most of his audience.

The crowd chanted “USA” and “We love Trump” to pass the time.

“Hello?” he finally said into the mike when it was working again.

As the crowd cheered, he responded: “Well, thank you, everybody. Now what happens is I won’t pay the bill for this stupid company that rented us this crap.”

Toward the end of his comments Trump invited rapper Trick Trick — whom he introduced as “one of the hottest” rappers in the world — on stage to endorse him.

“Where’s Trick Trick?” Trump said. “Come here, Trick Trick.”

Trump also told the crowd that “tariffs” is his favorite word in the dictionary. He has vowed to impose tariffs on all imports of up to 2000 percent if he makes it to the White House.

Trump has frequently erroneously characterized tariffs as something governments like China pay directly to the U.S. government. But in reality tariffs are paid by American importers like Costo and Target, which almost always pass them on to U.S. consumers, which would dramatically increase costs and fuel inflation.

Trump again erroneously insisted in an interview at the Chicago Economic Club early this week with Bloomberg editor in chief John Micklethwait that “China” pays hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, and the other countries “pay the tariffs.” When Michlethwait pointed out that people in America who buy foreign goods pay the increase, Trump insisted he is “very good at mathematics.”

Micklethwait also noted that raising tariffs would trigger a dangerous trade war, pointing out that 40 million American jobs rely on trade, and that it accounts for 27% of American GDP.

Trump ended his speech telling wives to get their husbands to vote. “Get that fat pig off the couch. Tell him to go and vote for Trump,” he urged.

Social media, meanwhile, got plenty of laughs out of Trump’s latest stage lull, which came just days after he shut down questions at a town hall outside Philadelphia and played music instead. He then mostly stood with his arms hanging down, sometimes swayed with his fists clenched in front of him, or tapped on his podium.