Donald Trump’s speeches are often known for veering off-topic, but his recent remarks at a public event in North Carolina took an especially strange turn. The former president went on an unexpected tirade about the decline in furniture quality, which led even his usually supportive ally, Fox News, to cut away from the broadcast.
While discussing the local economy, Trump abruptly shifted focus to lament what he sees as the downfall of North Carolina’s once-thriving furniture industry.
“I was a big buyer. North Carolina was the furniture capital of the world, but now so much of that business has been stolen by China and other countries,” he said. “And, by the way, the quality isn’t as good. Chairs break after two months.”
Fox News cuts away from Trump's speech after he goes on a lengthy rant about the allegedly declining quality of furniture pic.twitter.com/s7g7uWUa9t
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 25, 2024
Trump’s rambling continued as he linked his comments on furniture to broader critiques of Chinese-made products and even lawsuits against hotels involving faulty chairs. The speech, filled with detours and grievances, eventually included a promise to revive North Carolina’s furniture industry. “All of your furniture makers are going to come back bigger and better than ever,” he declared.
However, the speech took another strange twist when Trump claimed that his policies were the reason foreign countries harbored animosity toward him. “This is why people in other countries want to kill me. They’re not happy with what I’m saying. They only kill consequential presidents,” he stated.
Before this declaration, Fox News had already decided to cut away from Trump’s remarks, signaling perhaps that his diatribe had gone too far off course even for the network.
Morning Joe making fun of Donald Trump rambling about buying furniture in North Carolina was hilarious.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) September 26, 2024
Even Fox News cut away from his speech.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/kGP5IezDQ4
In a similarly disjointed moment, Trump also touched on the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, making the unusual suggestion that Ukraine should concede victory to Russia. His speech, filled with tangents and unusual assertions, marked a departure from his earlier, more focused rally addresses where he at least made sure to target the Democrats by spreading blatant misinformation and bizarre lies about the Harris-Walz campaign and remained on his usual on-brand conservative politics talking either about immigrants or his fear of pronouns.
The Republican presidential candidate has gone on to claim that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are abducting and eating pets, including dogs and cats, on Live TV during his first and what he claims to be his last presidential debate with Kamala Harris despite Springfield police already having dismissed the rumours. On his social media handles, he has shared plenty of doctored and AI-generated images of the vice president, even attempting to link her with his good friend, P Diddy, and just recently he tweeted his made-up version of Kamala Harris’ Project 2025, which included plans such as “Citizenship for 20 million illegals” and “Ban gas-powered cars,” alongside his usual baseless transphobic claims.
Considering Donald Trump never seems to be short of things to rant about on his social media, it does look pretty bleak that when it comes to addressing big rallies, the MAGA supreme leader is drawing a blank.
Trump’s tendency for lengthy, off-the-cuff speeches has become a hallmark of his political style, though even his supporters were left perplexed by the seemingly random subject matter of his latest appearance.