Donald Trump raised further concern about his state of mind on Saturday after delivering crude suggestions about the late golfer Arnold Palmer’s anatomy during a rally in Pennsylvania, in his latest diversion from the political script just weeks before election day.
Trump’s comments about Palmer, which lasted more than 10 minutes, were delivered at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport as the Republican nominee makes his final pitch to US voters in the battleground states that will decide the White House race.
“When he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said: ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable,’” Trump said, in an apparent reference to Palmer’s genitalia. “We have women that are highly sophisticated here, but they used to look at Arnold.”
The off-colour remarks add to a string of unusual campaign appearances that have raised concerns about Trump’s state of mind as he campaigns for a second term as US president. His Republican allies have sought to encourage him to focus on policy issues, but Trump has continued to veer off message.
At a town hall in Pennsylvania this week, he ended the event by playing music for more than 30 minutes and swaying back and forth on stage without speaking. His rhetoric, meanwhile, has grown increasingly dark and vulgar.
“You have to tell Kamala Harris that you’ve had enough, that you just can’t take it any more . . . you’re a shit vice-president,” he said at the rally on Saturday, referring to his Democratic rival.
How much this stuff matters is debatable, as Trump voters seem to have an extremely high tolerance for all his previous mishaps and scandals.
With only 14 days until the election, polling has both candidates very close.
Polling errors are normally much larger than current swing state margins & in same direction across states. If they match, 2020, Trump is comfortably ahead. If they match 2022, Harris is comfortably ahead.https://t.co/IpJsFRNa40 pic.twitter.com/8E9TlfM69o
— Matt Grossmann (@MattGrossmann) October 21, 2024
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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