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Published 15:27 25 Jun 2026 GMT
Donald Trump has come under fire online after delivering what many viewers described as a baffling and rambling moment during a speech in Pennsylvania, with critics branding the president’s comments “weird” and “embarrassing”.
The 80-year-old was speaking at a Mack Trucks manufacturing facility in the key swing region of Lehigh Valley on Tuesday (June 25), where he addressed a range of topics including inflation and energy prices.
During the speech, Trump argued that falling oil prices would help reduce the overall cost of living.
“That oil is going to come charging down,” he told the crowd. “And with oil comes everything else.”
However, it was another part of the address that quickly gained attention online.
At one point, Trump launched into a lengthy anecdote about a female weightlifter and transgender athletes, acting out parts of the story and mimicking someone attempting to lift heavy weights.
Referring to a fictional weightlifting scenario, Trump said: “You know the weightlifter where he goes up and the record stood for years, and years, years. And this young lady, she’s trying out for the Olympics and she’s going to do it…”
He continued by describing the athlete’s parents watching from the audience.
“But she said her parents are right there in the front, and they’re so proud. The father’s not so proud because he knows she’s not going to do it. Because she’s a woman. It’s a lot of weight. The mother, though, is screaming, ‘Darling, I love you. Do it.’”
Trump then acted out the scene further, telling supporters: “And she gets over the weights and she stares... and the mother’s screaming, ‘Darling, I love you.’
"The father’s looking, saying she has no chance. And she’s like this, you see. Ah, drops them, and she’s devastated for the rest of her life. And then a guy comes along who transitioned.”
The unusual detour immediately sparked discussion online, with many users questioning why the president repeatedly returns to the same weightlifting-themed routine during public appearances.
The impression has become something of a recurring feature of Trump’s speeches, with similar performances previously seen in 2022, 2023, and again earlier this year.
Reaction on social media was swift, with several critics expressing disbelief at the moment.
One user wrote: “Please show me one world leader who has ever behaved like this on TV. He is a b***dy embarrassment.”
Another account simply stated: “Trump did that weird thing again.”
Meanwhile, another user pointed fun a the speech, writing: “Trump, 80, moans on live television.”
The clip quickly spread across social media platforms, adding to the long list of Trump speech moments that have generated debate and divided opinion online.
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Published 15:39 17 Aug 2019 GMT
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Published 13:44 01 Mar 2021 GMT
Donald Trump has slammed the inclusion of transgender women competing in women's sports, claiming that records "are now being smashed with ease" and that women's sports "as we know it will die".
Delivering his first major speech since exiting the White House back in January, the former president appeared at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida on Sunday (February 28).
And after teasing a third presidential run - telling the crowd "I may even decide to beat [the Democrats] for a third time" - Trump turned his attention to transgender athletes, focusing primarily on trans women in sports.
Addressing the applauding audience, the 74-year-old slammed Biden's policies and said: "A lot of new records are being broken in women’s sports, I hate to say that ladies, but you have got a lot of new records that are being shattered."
Watch Trump's address below:Trump added: "Young girls and women are incensed that they are now being forced to compete against those who are biological males. That is not good for women.
"That is not good for women’s sports, which worked so long and so hard to get to where they were.
"The records that stood for years and decades are now being smashed with ease, smashed. If this is not changed women’s sports as we know it will die and end."
During his speech, Trump also mimicked female powerlifters, earning him laughs from the crowd.
Concluding his point, Trump told those in attendance: "I think it's crazy what is happening, we must protect the integrity of women’s sports.
"And I don’t even know, is that controversial? Someone said, 'Well that’s going to be very controversial', and I said, 'That’s okay, you have not heard anything yet.'"
After making his point, many of those in the crowd stood to give the former president a standing ovation.
Trump's speech comes days after the House passed a historic gay and transgender reform bill aimed at safeguarding the equalities of the community.
Additionally, Trump would take aim at his successor, President Joe Biden, describing these early days in Biden's reign as "the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history".
Published 09:40 02 Aug 2024 GMT
Donald Trump is facing backlash after he made a joke involving the man who died during his attempted assassination.
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The nation was left in shock when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, targeting the 78-year-old Republican candidate.
Trump narrowly avoided serious injury, sustaining only an ear wound.
The attack, however, left one rally-goer dead and two others seriously injured.
Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old volunteer fire chief from Sarver, Pennsylvania, lost his life during the shooting.
His family says he sacrificed himself to protect them.
Trump is now under fire for making a controversial remark about Helen Comperatore, Corey's wife.
During a rally in Harrisburg on Wednesday, Trump claimed that a friend had given Helen a check for $1 million and that crowdfunding efforts for her family had amassed millions more.
“But you know what?” Trump addressed his supporters. “Corey’s wife said, ‘I’d rather have my husband.’”
Trump added: “Isn’t that good? I know a lot of wives that would not say that, I’m sorry. They would not say that.”
His comment was met with laughter from the audience.
“But no, it’s a great family. He was a great man. He was a brave man,” Trump said before leading a moment of silence in honor of Corey.
Critics on X, formerly known as Twitter, swiftly condemned Trump for what they perceived as turning Corey’s tragic death into a punchline.
"So heartless and unkind," one person wrote, with a second adding: "He's a self-centered sadistic monster."
"The dead guy is a prop and now a punchline. Cruel," a third said.
However, some were defending Trump, with a suggestion that he was actually poking fun at his wife Melania.
Helen revealed that Trump called her in the aftermath of her husband's death, and she was pleased to answer the call.
"He was very kind and said he would continue to call me in the days and weeks ahead,” Helen Comperatore shared on her private Facebook page, per the New York Post.
“I told him the same thing I told everyone else. He left this world a hero and God welcomed him in. He did not die in vain that day,” she wrote of her husband, according to a screenshot of the post.
Trump’s call comes after Helen declined to take a call from President Biden following her husband’s death.
"I didn’t talk to Biden," Helen stated from her Pennsylvania home on Monday, per the New York Post.
"I didn’t want to talk to him. My husband was a devout Republican, and he would not have wanted me to talk to him.
“I don’t have any ill will towards Joe Biden. I’m not one of those people that gets involved in politics. I support Trump. That’s who I’m voting for, but I don’t have ill will towards Biden,” Helen said.
“He didn’t do anything bad to my husband. A 20-year-old despicable kid did.”
The leader of the Free World, President Trump, has mocked one of his own supporters for their weight.
The incident took place yesterday in New Hampshire when the president mistook the man for a protestor trying to disrupt the event. While giving a speech to his supporters, protestors interrupted Trump at the Southern New Hampshire University Arena.
This is the moment the president unknowingly insulted his own supporter:
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"That guy has got a serious weight problem. Go home, start exercising," Trump said, apparently believing that he was addressing a protestor.
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"Got a bigger problem than I do. Got a bigger problem than all of us," Trump added, seemingly referencing the man's weight. "Now he goes home and his mom says: 'What the hell have you just done?'"
It didn't take long for it to emerge that the man Trump was addressing was actually trying to defend the president by taking a sign from a protestor.
According to the Associated Press, when the protestors were taken away, the man shook his fist in support of President Trump.
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The mistake was brought to light by journalist Jennifer Jacobs, who revealed on Twitter that the three protestors were of a slim build.
The man, Frank Dawson, a former police officer and Navy veteran, was subsequently identified and interviewed by Fox News.
"I think he thought I was part of it but I wasn't - I was the good part of it," Dawson said, saying he wasn't offended. "Everything's good. I love the guy. He's the best thing that ever happened to this country."
When the president discovered that he'd accidentally insulted a supporter, he made a point of calling Dawson from Air Force One, a White House official revealed to the Washington Post.
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The president famously served up a fast-food feast on silverware during the government shutdown in January.
Published 12:27 13 Jul 2021 GMT
A video appearing to show Mel Gibson saluting Donald Trump has caused a stir on social media, with many people bashing the actor's gesture.
Both Trump and Gibson were in attendance at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night for the UFC 264 event.
Per The Independent, the former president entered the arena alongside UFC president Dana White, prior to the highly anticipated McGregor vs Poirier bout. Despite there being a scattering of boos in the crowd, the 75-year-old was largely met with cheers and chants of "U-S-A".
However, a video from the event has since gone viral on social media, showing the moment 65-year-old Gibson appeared to salute Trump as he entered the arena. As you can see from the video below, Trump doesn't appear to give the Braveheart star much of a reaction, and instead continued to wave at the crowd.
The video has since been viewed just shy of 1 million times on Twitter, and Snopes has since confirmed that it was, indeed, Gibson in the video. In response, many people not only questioning why Gibson saluted, but others also claimed the move would damage his career.
One Twitter user questioned: "Why did Mel Gibson who never served in the military salute captain bone spur who dodged the draft?"
"Mel Gibson’s dishonorable salute just got him demoted to the D-List with [Kevin] Sorbo, Scott Baio, and Dean Cain," a second social media user added.
However, others were happy to see Gibson use the gesture to greet Trump, with one person tweeting: "So Actor, Director Mel Gibson was so excited to see President Trump at the fight on Saturday night that he saluted the president as he walked by. Hollywood Liberals went in to full meltdown. Mel is worth $400 million, so what are they going to do? Cancel him? LOL."
As well as being in the crowd for the event, Gibson also spoke out about the result of the McGregor vs Poirier fight, which saw the 'Notorious One' lose after the first round after doctors prevented him from competing after he suffered a leg injury.
Gibson called for a rematch between the rivals, explaining that he doesn't care who wins, he just "wants to see a good match".
Published 13:19 21 Oct 2020 GMT
The 2020 presidential race is heating up and the candidates are doing everything they can sway any remaining undecided voters.
However, things are getting personal, and now Lara Trump has met with backlash after appearing to "mock" of 77-year-old Joe Biden's stutter during a Women for Trump rally in Iowa.
Trump, who is also a senior adviser to the president, said: "I feel kind of sad for Biden... I'm supposed to want him to fail at every turn, but every time they turn to him I'm like, 'Joe, can you get it out? Le''s get the words out, Joe.'"
The incident took place during an interview with CNN on Tuesday.
In the video below, Lara is called out by Jake Tapper for mocking Biden's stutter:
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Referring to this comment, Jake Tapper asked: "How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?"
Trump replied: "First and foremost, I had no idea that Joe Biden ever suffered from a stutter. I think what we see on stage with Joe Biden is very clearly a cognitive decline."
However, Tapper did not buy Trump's response and called her out for speaking about the Democratic presidential candidate in this way.
Tapper said: "I think that you were mocking his stutter and I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline."
He went on to end the interview with Lara early and sarcastically concluded it by saying: "I'm sure it was from a place of concern, we all believe that.
People on social media also slammed Lara, 38, for her comments and praised Tapper for his handling of their interview.
One Twitter user wrote: "Jake Tapper is not letting Lara Trump get away with her BS talking points.
"I’m also glad he slammed her for making fun of Biden’s occasional stutter."
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A second added: "Lara Trump will be best known as someone who mocked people who stutter.
"No matter what she does for the rest of her life,... that will be her legacy for all of eternity."
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A third tweeted: "Lara Trump is trash. Thank you for standing up for kids with stutters,
@jaketapper".
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Back in August, New Hampshire teen Brayden Harrington praised Joe Biden during the Democratic National Convention.
Earlier this year, Harrington bonded with Joe Biden on the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign trail. Speaking about his time with Biden, the youngster said: "Without Joe Biden, I wouldn't be talking to you today.
"About a few months ago, I met him in New Hampshire and he told me we are members of the same club. We stutter."
Check out Brayden's touching speech below:
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Biden has previously been outspoken about his stutter, revealing at a CNN town hall earlier this year that he "still occasionally" catches himself stuttering when he is tired.
He added: "It has nothing to do with your intelligence quotient. It has nothing to do with your intellectual makeup."
Lara's reference to the 77-year-old alleged cognitive decline comes after Donald Trump pictured a photoshopped picture of Biden in a nursing home.
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