Donald Trump Unloads in Rant Against 'Folks' and His Own Teleprompters

Former President Donald Trump railed against teleprompters and offered an impromptu rant against the word "folks" after suffering a teleprompter mishap during a campaign rally in Michigan.

Trump, who during a campaign stop in Wisconsin hours earlier had mocked President Joe Biden for using teleprompters, appeared to have difficulty delivering a coherent speech at multiple points when wind blew a teleprompter out of his view during a rally in Freeland, Michigan, on Wednesday.

After touting what he said was Republican "common sense" on issues like prohibiting transgender people from using public bathrooms, the former president's speech abruptly broke down when the teleprompter screen blew out of his view as he recited a list of policy goals.

"Whether you're conservative or you're liberal, it's about common sense," Trump said. "We want to have strong borders, we want to have low interest rates, we want to have a powerful military, we want to have ... we want to have great ... by the way, it's windy as hell up here!"

Trump turned to his right and gestured toward one of two teleprompters on stage while complaining to the crowd about the device. He then claimed that Biden would not be able to speak without a working teleprompter.

"I'm getting very little use out of these stupid teleprompters," said Trump. "Can you imagine if Biden was up here and the teleprompters didn't work? He's no good even when they do work ... It still doesn't work."

Later in the speech, when the teleprompter blew out of view as he bemoaned the multiple felony criminal charges facing him, the former president again denounced the devices and launched into a bizarre diatribe against the word "folks."

"This teleprompter is facing you, not facing me," Trump told the crowd, before walking over to manually adjust the teleprompter. "These teleprompters are just gonzo, folks! They're gonzo! I hate to use the word 'folks,' cross out the word 'folks.'"

"You ever hear Biden?" he added. "Every other word is folks: 'OK, folks.' It's like a nervous habit. I don't use the word 'folks.'"

The Biden campaign shared videos of the rally a short time later on X, formerly Twitter. The campaign mocked the ex-president over his disdain for "folks" and for appearing to be lost in the wind when his prepared speech was no longer visible.

"Trump's speech completely derails as his teleprompter malfunctions, causing him to go on an unintelligible rant about the word 'folks,'" the Biden campaign wrote while sharing a video clip.

Additional X posts by the Biden campaign shared videos of Trump suffering what it called "glitches and slurs" several times during the speech, including seemingly mispronouncing the word "great" as "gate" and "Venezuela" as "Venezueler."

Newsweek reached out for comment to the Trump campaign via email on Wednesday night.

The former president has repeatedly mocked Biden for delivering his speeches with the aid of teleprompters, with the rally on Wednesday not being the first time that he has targeted the president's use of teleprompters during his own clearly teleprompter-assisted speech.

During a November 2022 Trump rally in Sioux City, Iowa, the former president complained about getting "seasick" due to teleprompters waving in the wind, while insisting that teleprompter-free speeches do not "work well for Biden."

"You think it's easy being up here with this wind? And I've got these stupid teleprompters waving like a flag," Trump said. "You think this is easy doing this? ... I'm gonna get seasick, I'm getting seasick!"

"These suckers are moving around pretty good," he added. "I'm trying to follow them and I'm getting seasick up here."