Video shows Donald Trump pausing for a medical emergency in the crowd at rally, not 'freezing'

What is the claim?

A video of former U.S. President Donald Trump standing still in front of a microphone at an election rally is circulating on social media, claiming that he "froze" while addressing the public (example archived here). The overlaid text on the video reads, "Breaking: Trump freezes for 21 seconds during speech at his rally and Fox News has to cut away!"

One such post on X (formerly Twitter) sharing the video captioned it, "I feel like everyone needs to see Trump glitching for a full 21 seconds at his Bozeman rally last night." When writing this check, the post had garnered 1,700,000 views and 6,800 reposts. People commenting on the post mocked Trump, alleging he has "dementia" and that his teleprompter was jammed. Archived versions of this post and similar ones are here, here, and here. 

Screenshots of viral posts circulating on social media. (Source: X/Screenshots/Modified by Logically Facts) 

However, we found that Trump paused during his speech at the rally because of a medical emergency in the crowd. 

What did we find?

A reverse image search of the viral clip led us to a video uploaded by C-Span (archived here) on August 9, 2024, titled "Former President Trump Campaigns in Montana." At 16:10, we hear someone shouting, "Medic, medic, medic," and Trump says, "A doctor, please, a doctor in the house. Thank you very much. Thank you. Take your time." For about a minute, Trump asks the doctor to take time to treat the individual. From the 17:57 to 18:20 timestamp, the visuals match the now-viral clip where posts have claimed he froze for 21 seconds.

In the video, after 18.20, the crowd at the rally starts chanting, "Four more years." Acknowledging the crowd, Trump says, "We better get four more years," and continues his address.

The full video shows that Trump paused his speech to allow doctors to attend to the person in the crowd.

This video was also uploaded to YouTube by PBS NewsHour on August 10 (archived here), which live-streamed Trump's campaign in Montana. In the video at 3:14:10 timestamp, we can see similar visuals of Trump calling for a doctor, and at 3:15:58, we can see Trump pausing his speech to allow the doctor to attend to the audience member.

The verdict

The full footage from Trump's rally at Bozeman, Montana, clearly establishes that he paused his speech as the doctors were attending to someone in the crowd, and it was not him "glitching," as incorrectly claimed in the viral posts. 

Follow Logically Facts' coverage and fact-checking of the U.S. Election 2024 here.