Former president and 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was in rare form Monday night, going on a number of bizarre tangents at a Pennsylvania rally—including an extended riff on the decline of late-night TV and his once cordial relationship with Oprah Winfrey.
Trump also added notable twists, including speculation that Kamala Harris was lying about the fact that she worked at McDonald’s and claiming he would like to “work the french fry job for about a half an hour” at an unnamed franchise this week because “I wanna see how it is.”
Speaking at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Trump began his address by calling out a host of high-profile media figures who he felt had wronged him in some way.
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“Oprah Winfrey, who I used to know well, she used to love me, until I decided to run for politics,” he said, putting on a mock Winfrey voice: “Oh let’s go to Mar-a-Lago darling, I love the place so much.” The crowd could be heard booing at the mention of the legendary talk show host’s name.
“She used to love me but once I ran for politics that was the end of that and that was OK with me, I couldn’t care less, because we gotta to make our country great again, we gotta make it great again, greater than ever before,” Trump continued, echoing a Saturday night Truth Social post criticizing Winfrey for her interview with Harris last week. “I couldn’t help but think this isn’t the real Oprah,” he added in the post.
At the rally, Trump, in usual fashion, darted from topic to topic, from claiming the stock market was rising due to confidence in his 2024 election chances to echoing his false claims that the 2020 election had been rigged. It wasn’t long before he moved onto late-night TV, a favorite topic of derision during his political career.
“The Tonight Show, which is dying, they’re all dying. Where is Johnny Carson? Bring back Johnny Carson,” Trump said. Carson, host of NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson between 1962 and 1992, died in 2005. The show is now hosted by Jimmy Fallon.
“[Jimmy Kimmel] was the worst host in the history of the Academy Awards. Remember I did that? Remember I put a Truth...” he said, referencing his former beef with the late-night host, who has been critical of the former president in the past.
“Remember the Academy Awards... and this stupid guy goes up, and just before the Best Picture of the year, the show is almost over, they’re waiting for Best Picture of the year, he gets up and he says, and his wife said, ‘Please don’t do it, please darling don’t go out,’ his manager said, ‘Don’t do it’... ‘I have to do it.’ he goes out and reads my Truth to the entire audience, right before primetime. He reads the whole thing and then I think he said something like, ‘Ha ha ha he thinks he bothers me’ or some crap like that. I said, ‘He’s one of the dumbest human beings ever. What a dope.’”
Trump then complained about “dishonest ABC”—an apparent reference to the network’s job hosting the most recent presidential debate. He also complained that moderator David Muir fact-checked—or “kept interrupting”—him, suggesting he has a “serious of brain problem” for reporting (correctly) that crime numbers in New York are going down. Muir has previously described the criticism as “noise.”
Trump, highlighting his issues with Ukraine, then labeled President Volodymyr Zelensky as “the greatest salesman in history.” He added: “Every time he comes into the country, he walks away with $60 billion. Walks in with $60 billion. He wants them [Democrats] to, he wants them to win this election so badly.”
The crowd cheered after Trump claimed that Springfield, Ohio, “will never be the same,” an apparent reference to an influx of immigrants from Haiti who settled in the community—though he never named their country of origin directly.
“You have to get them the hell out, you have to get them out. I’m sorry, can’t have it, can’t have it. They destroyed it.”
After the diatribe, rally attendees began to chant “Send them back!”
Haitian immigrants have been the targets of Republican attacks ever since Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance floated a false theory that members of the community was kidnapping and eating people’s pets.
