Donald Trump has long been unhealthily obsessed with his crowd sizes. When he took office in 2017, one of the first big things he lied about was the crowds at his inaugurations. More recently, Trump has taken to arguing that “AI” has been used to create fake crowds at Kamala Harris’ rallies. When Harris suggested in their debate that Trump’s fans were bored and leaving his rallies early, he was obviously bothered.
Trump claimed earlier this month that his return rally in Butler, Pa., was attended by more than 100,000 people, but crowd estimates placed the number at about 24,000.
Now, Trump has made another claim about his rallies- one that fell apart in real time.
According to Huff Post, when Trump held a rally this week in Reading, Pa., he stated, “We do a lot of these beautiful rallies, and it’s so great,” and then added, “We never have an empty seat, never have, look at it.”
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Trump’s particular boast was obviously not true. And the Associated Press published a photo of empty seats at that very rally.
Another report published a video, also showing empty seats at the same rally where Trump said that:
📍Trump’s rally in Reading, PA. A lot of open seats in the back. The arena capacity is over 7,000. pic.twitter.com/JXRKNpGsZs
— Libbey Dean (@LibbeyDean_) October 10, 2024
Another report who was present noted that even though the venue in Reading was relatively small, with a capacity of about 7,000, there were plenty of empty seats:
Lot of empty seats at Trump rally in Reading, Pa. Arena has 7,200 seats. pic.twitter.com/4KkaoLnZ9E
— Dana Milbank (@Milbank) October 9, 2024
One user noted a bigger crowd at the same venue for a high school graduation than for Trump’s rally:
My kid’s had their high school graduations at this same arena as Trump’s rally tonight in Reading, Pennsylvania. There were not as many empty seats there for their graduating classes of 335 and 352 students. The arena can hold 8800 for concerts. https://t.co/dMxuXUJgY6
— Maudi63 (@maudi63) October 10, 2024
The whole affair recalls Trump’s infamous rally in Tulsa, in the summer of 2020, which was the first rally he held during the COVID shutdowns. That rally attracted just over 6,000 people, which was about a third of the arena’s capacity, and led to numerous positive COVID cases, including among Trump’s own staffers. That event, among other things, puts the lie to Trump’s claims about his rallies never having any empty seats.
Photo courtesy of Political Tribune media library.
