US presidential election 2024: Donald Trump spoke for six hours in his final four rallies

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and Donald Trump.

Fidel Castro famously spoke for almost 4½ hours at the UN in 1960, becoming the archetype of the political wind bag.

Like him or loathe him, Donald Trump at least has the stamina and loquacity.

On the final day of campaigning of the 2024 US presidential election, the former president was on track to speak for an astonishing six hours in total, quite possibly more at the time of writing, at four different rallies across the critical swing states of North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Argentine-born revolutionary figure Ernesto "Che" Guevara with Castro in Havana's famous "1830" restaurant, four years after he and Fidel led the revolution that toppled Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Just one of his rally speeches was on track to comfortably ­exceed the full length of Vice-President Kamala Harris’s remarks during her four final campaign appearances on the same day.

Fidel was in his early 30s when he famously harangued the UN.

Trump, 78, spoke for 90 minutes in Raleigh, another 90 in Reading, Pennsylvania, then well over 100 minutes in Pittsburgh, before flying to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for his finally rally, which was expected to start near midnight.

You can be sure it won’t be anything like the Gettysburg Address, which didn’t even make 300 words.

The Democrat candidate for president kickstarted her final day of remarks with a quick eight-minute address in Scranton, Pennsylvania, followed by 20 minutes in Allentown and 10 minutes in Pittsburgh, ahead of her final speech at Philadelphia.

Journalist Megyn Kelly was surely right to remark on the Republican nominee’s extraordinary energy, when she joined him on stage briefly in Pittsburgh.

I ended up behind the former president’s dais at his Raleigh rally, and I can confirm his claims to make little use of the teleprompter appear to be true. Indeed, it barely scrolled the entire time, a fact both his critics and supporters would be quick to point out, for different reasons, of course. Pity the poor person who has to operate it.

Trump’s speeches have become longer and angrier than they were when he was president, although there are plenty of jokes too, often some dancing, and occasionally the bizarre performing of a sex act on the microphone, as occurred last week to widespread bemusement. His detractors say excessively long political speeches tend to be a hallmark of authoritarian leaders. His supporters say there’s much more to be angry about this time around.

There’s no doubt the man can hold the attention of thousands of supporters for extended periods, even if hundreds of people do tend to leave his rallies midway through, as they did at the JS Dorton arena in Raleigh.

The two candidates could not have more different styles, marathon streams of consciousness versus politically workshopped slogans and sound bites; which proves the winning formula, time will tell.