Russian state TV questions Trump’s mental fitness after bizarre town hall

Former President Donald Trump‘s “mental abilities” have been questioned on Russian state television following a town hall event that saw the ex-president stop taking questions and instead dance on stage for an extended period of time.

After two attendees fainted and required medical attention during the town hall in Pennsylvania on Monday, Trump suddenly informed the crowd that he would like to “not do any more questions” and instead “just listen to music.”

“Let’s make it into a music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?” Trump said, before proceeding to stand awkwardly and sometimes dance on stage as music played for 39 minutes.

Russian state television host Olga Skabeyeva, who has been called the “Iron Doll of Putin TV” for often pushing propaganda in line with Russian President Vladimir Putin, pointed to the bizarre episode during Russia-1 broadcast on Tuesday.

Julia Davis, the founder of the Russia Media Monitor watchdog group, wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter, that the broadcast “weighed in on Dancing Donald and reluctantly acknowledged there are legitimate reasons to question his mental acuity.”

Skabeyeva said during the broadcast that Trump was “suspected of being unfit because of his advanced age,” while asserting that “Democratic propaganda” was pointing to “a Pennsylvania event where Donald refused to answer questions and offered to dance instead,” according to a translation from Davis’ group.

During the same broadcast, U.S.-based Russia-1 correspondent Igor Naimushin later pointed out that Trump has claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris instead has issues with “cognitive stamina and agility” before suggesting that he thought there was reason to suspect that Trump was mentally unfit.

“I have to acknowledge that the former U.S. president, and possibly future one, often keeps repeating himself during his speeches,” Naimushin said while video of Trump dancing at the town hall played. “He indeed gives a cause to doubt his mental abilities… He isn’t far behind the current President Joe Biden [in age].”

Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump’s office via email on Tuesday night.

Questions about Trump’s mental fitness due in part to his behavior at Monday’s town hall were not limited to Russian state television.

The View co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump aide, said during a broadcast on Tuesday that Trump was experiencing “a very real decline” and was “not even the man I worked for who had all sorts of problems then.”

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung touted the unusual course that the town hall took as evidence that “something very special is happening in Pennsylvania” in posts to X.

“Total lovefest at the PA townhall! Everyone was so excited they were fainting so @realDonaldTrump turned to music,” Cheung wrote. “Nobody wanted to leave and wanted to hear more songs from the famous DJT Spotify playlist!”

Trump, 78, is the oldest major party U.S. presidential nominee in history and has increasingly faced questions about his cognitive abilities and fitness for office since Harris replaced 81-year-old Biden, who has often been targeted with similar questions.

A Marquette Law School poll released earlier this month found that 61 percent of registered voters agreed that Trump is “too old to be president,” while only 13 percent said the same of Harris.