Donald Trump revived questions about his mental acuity after appearing to say that wind energy was to blame for the increased price and decreased consumption of bacon.
The former president’s bizarre remarks came at a town hall-style campaign gathering in Wisconsin on Thursday, when an audience member asked the Republican nominee for November’s White House election what he would do to help bring inflation down.
Trump delivered a lengthy answer, apparently saying that he blamed wind power for bacon being more costly and therefore eaten less.
“You take a look at bacon and some of these products – and some people don’t eat bacon any more,” Trump said. “We are going to get the energy prices down. When we get energy down, you know … this was caused by their horrible energy – wind. They want wind all over the place. But when it doesn’t blow, we have a little problem.”
Video clips of Trump’s comments quickly made the rounds online and brought out critics in full force. Some detractors dismissed his answer as “incoherent” and “word salad”.
Trump: Some people don’t eat bacon anymore. This was caused by their horrible energy. Wind. They want wind all over the place. When it doesn’t blow, we have a problem. pic.twitter.com/z9FnkHnYOU
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 30, 2024
On Friday, Mehdi Hasan – a broadcaster and author and a Guardian US columnist – posted the video of Trump’s remarks on X and asked whether his answer would draw the same level of editorial scrutiny as comments from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris or her running mate Tim Walz.
“Will any of the army of factcheckers obsessed with Tim Walz’s dog or Kamala Harris’s McDonald’s summer job be giving any attention to Donald Trump suggesting windmills cause high bacon prices?”
In another post featuring the video clips, Hasan argued that Trump should face the same kind of media pressure to end his run for president that preceded Joe Biden’s decision to halt his re-election campaign after a poor performance at a 21 June debate.
Hasan wrote: “Historians will scratch their heads about 2024, in which 1 candidate was forced to quit the race for being old & having a bad debate while the other candidate said mad, rambling stuff like this & not only stayed in the race but didn’t get pressured to step aside by the media.”
In what seemed like a reference to Trump’s recent comments about bacon, a Thursday night cooking-themed virtual Harris campaign fundraiser hosted by the Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell featured some recipes with bacon.
Swalwell on Friday sent out an email touting the success of the cooking call, which included some well-known chefs, and a “notable moments” list conspicuously mentioned the bacon recipes.
