Donald Trump’s Crowd Size Claims Face Pushback

Former President Donald Trump was mocked for focusing on the crowd size of Vice President Kamala Harris’ first rally during his campaign event in North Carolina on Wednesday.

Harris, who launched her bid for president on Sunday, held her first rally as the presumptive Democratic nominee near Milwaukee on Tuesday. Several outlets have reported that the vice president attracted a crowd of over 3,000 people as she focused her message on being a campaign “focused on the future,” while Trump is “focused on the past.”

Trump made digs at Harris’ rally during his event in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday, including comparing crowd sizes. At one point during the night, he told his roaring supporters that Harris’ campaign had “worked hard to get a crowd,” while his campaign has crowds of up to “70,000.” Trump also repeatedly complained about the “fake news media” never reporting about the size of his rallies.

“If I ever had a crowd like Kamala—assuming she had 2,000 people, which I don’t think she did—but if I ever had a crowd, they’d do headline stories, ‘Trump is over, it’s all over, it’s not working for him anymore,'” Trump said later in the night.

Videos of Trump’s comments circulated on X, formerly Twitter, Wednesday night, and some users poked fun at his claims, including online personality Ed Krassenstein, who is often critical of the former president.

“Trump is having a major breakdown right now at his rally crying about Kamala Harris’s crowd size,” Krassenstein wrote. “He just spent several minutes talking about how she got credit for her crowd size and how he never gets credit. He’s a man-baby. You can tell he’s really flustered.”

The account Acyn also shared a clip of Trump’s rally, writing alongside the video, “The crowd size coverage has obviously gotten to Trump as he’s still ranting about Kamala Harris’ crowd size.”

Another user, Denison Barb, responded to a clip of Trump’s event posted by Acyn, writing, “Same old Trump. All insults and nothing on issues.”

Trump’s claims regarding his crowd sizes have been scrutinized before. After a rally in the South Bronx in May, the former president’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, told Newsweek that Trump drew a crowd of 25,000 people. The rally, however, had a permit for only 3,500 spectators.

A similar issue arose after Trump’s rally in Las Vegas last month. While the former president had claimed that at least 20,000 people had attended the rally amid 100- degree temperatures, county officials told Newsweek that the venue where the rally took place has a maximum capacity of 3,000.

On Wednesday, Trump specifically highlighted his May rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, where a city spokesperson told the Associated Press that an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 attended. Newsweek previously reported that the estimate was likely overstated.

Newsweek sent an email to Trump’s campaign Wednesday night for comment.