Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Donald Trump sounds sombre – and strange

Donald Trump stands onstage during the last day of the Republican National Convention (Getty Images)

Nobody can blame Donald Trump for a being a little reflective – given the events of the last few days. But his big speech in Milwaukee last night was, as his rather unkind critics were quick to point out, curiously ‘low-energy’. He was sombre and slow. He looked almost too sad to read out from the teleprompter. He at times seemed to struggle to hold back the tears. 

Donald Trump can do funny and he can do angry. But sombre Donald Trump is a different man altogether

Normally, at rallies, Trump revs up the crowd. This time the crowd tried again and again to rev him up. They laughed at lines he said as if he were joking when he wasn’t.

‘I’m not supposed to be here tonight,’ he said, a line he has already used in interviews about the shooting last weekend. ‘Yes you are! Yes you are!’ the crowd chanted back.

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