1 week Ago
Topline Donald Trump boasted early at his rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, on Saturday that the crowds turning out to his campaign events were greater than those of Vice President Kamala Harris—an obsessive topic with the former president—but on-the-ground reports, and a deeper look by The New York Times , showing the two presidential candidates draw comparable audiences. Trump's rally was held at Central Wisconsin Airport. (AP Photo/Morry Gash) Key Facts Trump, who spoke before a modest crowd assembled for a rally at the Central Wisconsin Airport, claimed Harris does not have big crowds into her rallies before lauding audience members who he claimed traveled to his rally from North Carolina.
Trump said no other person has “had crowds like this...
and the fake news knows it,” before pointing to a media section that was roundly booed by the crowd. The former president’s comments are the most recent in a series of remarks about the crowds his and Harris’ rallies draw, as he has repeatedly claimed the vice president’s crowds are smaller, even falsely accusing Harris of using artificial intelligence to cover up low attendance at a Detroit rally. Trump, who has exaggerated his own crowd sizes, draws similarly large audience numbers to Harris, according to The New York Times , which noted Trump’s longer speeches at three rallies last month possibly contributed to more crowd thinning than what was seen during three rallies of Harris’.
Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts : We’re launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here. Big Number About 5,600.
That is the average crowd size across 28 Trump rallies this year, according to an analysis from the Harvard Kennedy School. The average figure is similar to attendance averages of 4,600 in 2023 taken from a total of 19 Trump campaign events that year, the analysis noted. Tangent Former President Barack Obama criticized Trump during a speech at the Democratic National Convention last month, attacking his “weird obsession with crowd sizes.
” Obama moved his hands apart and then brought them close together after the remark, looking down and acting surprised at his gesture, which provoked laughs from attendees. Key Background Trump’s focus on crowd sizes dates back to his first run for president, when the then-presidential candidate usually drew audiences larger than his Republican competitors or Hilary Clinton’s, The Washington Post reported, adding Trump regularly exaggerated the large turnouts of his campaign events. Trump’s campaign once moved a 2015 Phoenix rally to a larger venue to compensate for the 4,200 people who ended up attending, though the former presidential candidate later claimed the crowd size numbered about 15,000, according to the Post.
That trend continued into his presidency. Trump falsely claimed his inauguration day speech drew 1.5 million people, which was disproved by photographs .
Years later, Trump’s former Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was criticized on social media for claiming more than one million supporters showed up for Trump’s “Million MAGA March” in 2020, as videos and photos of the event appeared to show far less people in attendance than what McEnany claimed. Trump’s most recent notorious crowd size fib centered around his speech on Jan. 6, 2021 near the National Mall, which he claimed had more attendees than that of Martin Luther King Jr.
’s iconic speech during the March on Washington in 1963. Trump’s claim was also disproven by photos of his and King’s speech, which was delivered to an estimated 250,000 people, according to the National Constitution Center . The Jan.
6 committee estimated Trump’s crowd numbered about 53,000 . Further Reading Trump Falsely Claims Kamala Harris' Rally Crowd Was 'Fake' And AI-Generated (Forbes) Trump Team Mocked For Apparently Exaggerating Crowd Size (Again)—This Time For ‘Million Maga March’ (Forbes).
