After his planned series of “America’s State Fair” concerts was canceled, President Donald Trump decided to instead kick off his 250th anniversary with a rally, which took place on Wednesday night. And when that rally took place, large numbers of people left early while the president was still speaking, in what soon became a viral moment.
In a Truth Social post on Thursday, the president seemed in denial about the rally’s lack of interest.
“The Crowd was incredible last night, packed to the brim — At least 45,000 people were there, with a huge Television and online audience. I wish we were able to have an even larger area, which we will be able to do on July 4th when I’ll be speaking again. The airplane flyovers and music were fantastic,” Trump said on his social network. “Everybody stayed right until the end of my Speech because they loved hearing about a truly successful America. See you again on July 4th!”
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Trump, of course, has been getting into fights about crowd size estimates, going all the way back to the inauguration in his first term, when he sent out then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer to lie about the inauguration being the largest ever. But now he’s asking his audience to deny what they saw with their own eyes, which is that attendees left early, as pointed out by multiple journalists:
The crowd has really thinned out since Trump began speaking around 8:50pm. pic.twitter.com/TpBWccVSRb
— Jared Poland (@Jared_Poland) June 25, 2026
LOL — Trump, channeling Sean Spicer, claims his rally last night was “packed to the brim,” contradicting anyone with functioning eyes who tuned in pic.twitter.com/RIYrsUCiGn
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 25, 2026
“The crowd thinly covered an area about the length of the National Museum of American History, smaller than some summer outdoor movie screenings,” the Washington Post said of the crowds on Wednesday night.
Trump, meanwhile, later posted a follow-up about the planned July 4 festivities, touting military flyovers that “will be the best, EVER — The most planes, the newest planes, the fastest planes!,” as well as his own speech:
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
