At 80 years old, President Donald Trump does not get around as fast as he did in his younger years.
The businessman-turned-politician’s tardiness was on full display for a special White House event on Sept. 30.
Trump hosted a Hispanic Heritage Month reception in the East Room. The celebration included the former “The Apprentice” reality TV star delivering a nearly hour-long speech.
Before the president addressed the audience of Hispanic community members for more than 50 minutes, he had guests waiting for nearly as long.
The event was scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET. According to a pool reporter at the scene, Trump did not step to the microphone until after 1:37 p.m. ET.
“The pool and pre-credentialed media are still waiting in the East Room for the president’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebration to begin,” Daily Caller correspondent Reagan Reese noted.
Footage from the White House function, pre-Trump’s arrival, made its way to the internet. Dozens of people could be seen restlessly mingling as they waited for the headliner.
Then viewers zoomed in, and the soundtrack and the guests stood out. Soft, easy-listening music, reminiscent of elevator music from generations ago, played over the crowded East Room, a jarring disconnect from the celebration at hand.
“This is the scene at the [White House] as the crowd waits for [Trump], who is now over 30 minutes late. Can you tell from the music and the people what the event is? No? It’s for a Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration,” one Threads user captioned a clip of the festivities.
A second poster replied, “Ummm… I don’t see many Hispanics!! And the music… WTH?” Another responder jokingly asked, “Did that remind anyone else of music from a Charlie Brown special?”
One person on the app provided a more positive spin on the Muzak-style tunes by sarcastically posting, “I’m just happy they aren’t playing ‘La Cucaracha.’”
The gripes over the low-energy melodies continued on X. One jokester suggested, “Probably the only music he’s got left that doesn’t come with a lawsuit.”
“We cannot even get Hispanic elevator music playing! Nothing says, ‘Let’s Celebrate your Heritage,’ like putting BORING ELEVATOR MUSIC ON,” someone grumbled.
The fact that Trump was even recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month — which runs this year from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 — did not sit well with some social media users, particularly because of the president’s hardline anti-immigration policies.
“Two-faced. Celebrating them and deporting them at the same time. Loser,” complained an X poster.
In addition to showing up late and seemingly resisting playing more culturally appropriate music, Trump also upset online critics with specific remarks he made at the celebration.
What began as a boastful invitation for the Hispanic Heritage Month reception invitees to see the unfinished White House ballroom turned into a racially charged joke that made fun of the heritage of the people he was supposed to be celebrating.
“It’s quite the place,” Trump stated about his controversial $400 million vanity project on the White House grounds. “And you literally will be the first group ever to enter the premises. So, be very careful.”
The elderly MAGA frontman went on to emphasize his invitation in a way that set the internet into a frenzy. He said, “Don’t fall over the edge, ‘cause it’s a long way down and only a Hispanic could survive that fall.”
Tying construction work to the Hispanic community sounded like Trump was embracing bigoted stereotypes. Rep. Analilia Mejia, the first Afro-Latina to serve in the U.S. Congress, pushed back on that narrative.
“I’m not surprised that he would take the limited opportunities that he grants himself to engage with my community in an authentic way, and instead pivot to his own narcissistic greatest hits,” the 49-year-old New Jersey Democrat told The Grio.
Those comments by Trump also came off as insensitive to many of his detractors, considering a laborer suffered a non-life-threatening emergency in September while working on a scaffold outside the White House.
