Donald Trump is having what has to be one of the worst public relations days of his life and holy cow, that is saying something. Saturday was yet another day of Black Lives Matter rallies nationwide, COVID-19 cases are growing exponentially, Attorney General Bill Barr was caught publicly lying not once, but twice in the last 24 hours, Trump and Barr’s plan to takeover the office of the Southern District of New York with a handpicked crony thwarted, the media was informed six members of Trump’s advance team tested positive for COVID-19 (including two members of the Secret Service) and now……..his crowd in Tulsa is a bust in every imaginable way.
It turns out, not that many people were willing to attend an indoor rally with the most rabid MAGA fans, many of whom have been to dozens of Trump rallies in faraway states and follow Trump like some sick twisted version of Deadheads. MAGAheads?
Despite bragging on social media that they’d gotten more than 1 million ticket requests online, they could’ve held this rally in a large high school gym. The first overhead video I came across on Twitter was an indication the crowd seemed…...light. All that goodness after the jump.
OK, but maybe there is a really huge long line down a block not seen, right? Turns out….no. It started to crystalize about 90 minutes before Donald Trump was scheduled to speak.
The Trump campaign had also set-up a large outdoor viewing area and told reporters Trump would be out to speak to the overflow crowd in person. Here’s that area around 30 minutes before Trump’s speech.
Ooooooooof. I mean, what if you threw a party and nobody came?
Shortly after that photo of the overflow area was shared, the Trump campaign confirmed to reporters Donald Trump would not be addressing the overflow crowd after all.
Around the time Trump was climbing down the stairs of Air Force One, his campaign was already releasing excuses to reporters. Team Trump blamed……..protesters. LOLOLOLOLOL.
Here’s a glimpse of Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, who has reportedly been on the outs with Trump lately anyway, looking over the outdoor crowd while waiting for Emperor Palpatine to arrive.
That is a man who will likely be looking for a new job before he lays his head on his pillow tonight.
Meanwhile, White House aides had hoped this rally would reenergize Trump, who is clearly not up for the job. Maggie Haberman of The New York Times said advisor believed his heart really isn’t in the fight.
In fact, just two days ago, Trump said they’d never had an empty seat and they sure wouldn’t in Oklahoma. Really.
Sure enough, before I could even hit publish on this post, the Trump campaign is going full steam ahead with the lie that protesters prevented thousands of people from attending.
OK, Brad.
Even at the most generous angles, the crowd was light, light, light. This arena’s capacity is 19,199 and as you can see, the upper deck is largely empty.
Outside, event workers didn’t wait. They started breaking down the overflow stage before Donald Trump even took the stage. They better hope they got paid in advance.
At the end of the day, we are in a global pandemic and it turns out, most people don’t want to die.