Well, that’s one way to look at it! Donald Trump said that his 75-minute speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday, July 21, was so long because the crowd just couldn’t contain their applause for the Republican presidential nominee.
“Now it wasn’t my fault, but I think it went like an hour and 25 minutes and the networks didn’t know what to do because they had all of their programming, their big programming. The local news is a very big factor on television. You never, ever move your local news. They moved it. They said, ‘To heck with the local news,’ Mike,” Trump, 70, said as he turned to his vice presidential running mate Mike Pence, during a news conference at the RNC. “They said, ‘We’re moving it.’ And Kimmel and Fallon and all the shows, they all went back a long way ‘cause they weren’t gonna miss this convention.”
“I love that. I love that, you know? I knew. I said, ‘Well, I’m supposed to be off. Let’s keep going.’ But it wasn’t my fault,” the ex–Celebrity Apprentice host insisted. “What happened — what happened was the applause was so long and so crazy. It really was. I mean, if you look, the speech was fun but the applause were longer than the speech!”
While the real estate tycoon turned politician believes most of the convention attendees at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena were captivated by his lengthy oration, his youngest son, Barron, looked dreadfully bored.
The 10-year-old — who Trump shares with wife Melania — could not stop yawning as his dad spoke about his potential gig as POTUS. At one point, Barron covered his face and rubbed his eyes as his mom appeared to glare him down. The mother-son duo sat next to Trump’s four eldest children at the event, Barron’s half-siblings Ivanka, Tiffany, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump.
Following his father’s address, Barron didn’t crack a smile or express an ounce of enthusiasm. Instead, he seemed to be mesmerized by the confetti and balloons that fell from the ceiling at the end of the ceremony.
Also unimpressed by Trump’s speech — in which he claimed to be the “voice” of struggling Americans — were several celebrities who took to social media to share their disappointment.
“They ran Trump’s acceptance speech through a plagiarism app, and it turns out most of it was lifted from Vladimir Putin,” George Takei wrote, while Eric Benet sniped: “#TrumpSpeech I give it 4 out of 5 swastikas. #RNCinCLE.”
“The party I was part of is dead,” Meghan McCain offered, and Pretty Little Liars star Troian Bellisario slammed Trump by sharing, “As I watch Trump’s speech to the #RNC I just keep shouting “BUT HOW” at my screen. Please say something, sir, what do you plan to DO?”
Watch the video above.
