Donald Trump notably removed the disco fan-favorite YMCA song from his playlist at a South Carolina rally on Saturday after calling it the “gay national anthem” in an interview earlier this week.
The former president ended his rally many times with the 1978 hit Village People, and on many occasions he was depicted doing a little jig to the song. Recently, however, he began to close his set with Sam & Dave’s 1966 song Hold On I’m Coming.
At his rally from cold, windy, and wet Florence, South Carolina, on Saturday night, Trump didn’t play the YMCA, which routinely pumps the crowd with synchronized hand movements.
It comes after the release of the Full Send podcast, recorded on Wednesday from Mar-a-Lago, where he was asked if he had any favorite song.
Do you know what turns them on? YMCA,” Trump said.
YMCA is the national gay anthem. Have you ever heard it? Gay national anthem,” he added.
Even though the YMCA didn’t play at Saturday’s rally, another notable Village People hit played at its events, Macho Man, played through the speakers ahead of Trump’s Saturday night speech.
Trump’s playlists at rallies are usually pretty consistent and don’t vary much, except for occasional additions or subtractions. For example, during tensions with North Korea when Trump was president, he played Billy Elton John hitting Rocket Man in reference to the dictator and his frequent nuclear testing.
Donald Trump pulled out of playing the hit YMCA Village People at a Saturday rally in Florence, South Carolina, after calling the song “the gay national anthem” in an interview on Wednesday.
The former president ended his rally with Sam & Dave’s 1966 song Hold On I’m Coming and still performed the dance he had performed in front of the YMCA at previous rallies. Pictured: Trump blows a kiss to the crowd in a field near the airport in Florence on Saturday evening.
The song, however, has since fallen out of rotation after attention was no longer focused on U.S. tensions with North Korea and Trump’s rows with Kim Jong Un.
The former president spoke about entertaining guests at his Mar-a-Lago resort in the episode “Full Dispatch”. He said that YMCA is always a favorite among club guests.
He boasted about his “high ability” with music and talked about his new act as a disc jockey serving Mar-a-Lago members on Fridays and Saturdays during an extensive podcast interview.
Trump also spoke during the interview about his personal attachment to Broadway show tunes and his relationship with record scratching and remixing sounds.
“I choose who I like. I don’t want to spin, I want to pick the ones that I like,” Trump said of his DJing style.
Trump is already known for playing the classic disco track at his rallies, where he often moved a bit to the beat himself.
While Trump still holds rallies, he plays more music at Mar-a-Lago, where it was revealed last month that he has taken on an entertainment role.
On Wednesday, Trump gave an extensive interview to the Full Send podcast in which he told listeners how he entertains guests in Mar-a-Lago.
A memo to guests dated February 2 said, “Great music will be played during dinner Friday and Saturday, with President Trump playing the role of disc jockey.”
“The music will be amazing, it will be a lot of fun, and it will last until late at night,” according to a report received by the New York Times.
On Wednesday, Trump said he had “a lot of good options” and “people love it when I do it.”
At one point, he disputed a Full Send host’s claim that the chart-topping YMCA retro hit was “underrated”.
“Well, I can tell he has a lot of views,” Trump challenged.
He also talked about his love of Broadway music, citing The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables as two of his favorite productions.
Other points in the interview took on a much more serious tone, such as when the former president denounced his successor Joe Biden for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Trump said he had not spoken to Putin since leaving office, but the Russian autocrat had “talked” to Trump about invading Ukraine.
Last week, the ex-president came under fire for calling Putin’s invasion “brilliant.”
He told Full Send that the autocrat “never” invaded Ukraine when he was president.
“I haven’t spoken to him since, but he never, never intended to do that, certainly not under the Trump administration — and I say zero chances, I don’t say like, I don’t think zero chances he would have.” . did this. And I talked to him about it, there is no chance that he will do it, ”Trump said.
“He saw the weakness, he saw Afghanistan, it’s… the way, the incompetence of the output, the way they did it was so bad.”
Trump was often seen dancing to the song Village People in 1978, which hit the YMCA at his signature “Make America Great Again” rallies.
Trump went on to say that Putin “became a different person” when he saw the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in late August last year.
“He looked at the United States differently, he no longer respected the United States,” Trump said.
Asked if he was going to challenge Biden in 2024, Trump was as evasive as ever, but once again hinted that he could seek re-election.
“The campaign finance laws don’t really allow you to discuss this unless you’re going to literally go through a different process,” Trump replied.
Campaign finance laws allow candidates to disclose the dollars they use during the election cycle to promote transparency. It is not clear what kind of law or “other process” the ex-president had in mind.
He continued, “So I think a lot of people will be really happy. You guys could be really happy.
“I think a lot of people will be really happy,” Trump said. “I’ll wait until… I have so many people wanting me to do this. I really think a lot of people will be very happy.”
The Village People’s music (pictured performing in Los Angeles in the 1970s) made numerous appearances at Trump’s events, where he also performed their hit Macho Man.