Dancing, gaming and trolling: This week on the US campaign trail

US election day is quickly approaching, but this week has shown there’s still plenty of time for dancing and video games on the campaign trail.

As the rhythm of Donald Trump’s final campaign tour gains speed, the president himself is trying to gain rhythm, egged on by cheering crowds to pop a few stiff-limbed moves to the 1970s hit “YMCA” by Village People.

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His dance moves have gained a slew of imitators on the Chinese-owned app TikTok, which Trump has been trying to get shut down as an alleged security threat.

Elbows bent, shoulders swinging and feet screwed to the floor, the TikTok users’ performances often end with some applause. Even the president’s daughter Ivanka has posted a video of her mimicking her father’s shimmy.

As in any campaign, the two candidates are trying to stake out their public identity using symbols, and for the president — a former real estate tycoon — that means images of skyscrapers with his name plastered over them.

But for a few hours at the end of last week, Trump Tower in Chicago was lit up with the names of Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris.

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The huge blue letters were immediately photographed and shared by passers-by on social media.

The stunt was organised by members of the United Steelworkers Union, which is backing Biden, president Barack Obama’s former VP.

Rap star Kanye West says he is definitely running for the White House this November, yet his name is missing from most ballots.

To overcome that small obstacle, West, who has held only one campaign rally until now, put out a short tutorial explaining how to fill in his name on the space reserved for “write-in” candidates.

The 30-second video clip has as a background track the rapper’s song “Nah Nah Nah,” which includes the lyrics “Next time you text, can it wait? You are talkin’ to a presidential candidate.”

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A space ship, a Democratic congresswoman, five million hits: the darling of the progressive left, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, enjoyed stunning success on Tuesday night when she played a video game on the popular livestreaming platform Twitch.

Her goal was to reach out to young voters — a key demographic for Democrats — and get them interested in the presidential election.

Known popularly as AOC, the youngest member of Congress invited her social media followers to watch her play “Among Us,” a popular game in which players are part of a crew on a space ship trying to carry out various tasks.

By midday Friday, the game had been viewed 5.2 million times.