ZEBULON, GEORGIA - OCTOBER 23: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a roundtable with faith leaders at Christ Chapel on October 23, 2024 in Zebulon, Georgia. Trump is campaigning across Georgia today as he and Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris attempt to win over swing state voters. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

‘Never has an empty seat:’ Donald Trump lies about his rally attendance as man leaves mid-speech

Like Bush demanded in 2000, I think Trump needs a recount… on his rally attendance numbers. While Trump was busy touting that “nobody leaves” his rallies while speaking at an event in North Carolina, a supporter directly behind him was doing just that. Kamala HQ spotted the deserter with a perfectly timed zoom in. Whoever is running the page deserves a raise.

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It isn’t the first time that people have dipped from Trump rallies, or in some cases, not shown up at all. In the sometimes red, sometimes blue state of North Carolina, a Kamala Harris rally was held in a venue five times bigger than Trump’s in the sane state. It’s all par for the course for Kamala, whose presidential campaign has been more breaking records than Guinness’ book. Her Washington D.C. rally boasted an attendance of 75,000 people. She had 30,000 people show up to a rally in Houston, Texas, and set a record in Atlanta with a rally attendance of 23,000. A Trump rally in Las Vegas, held around the same time as Kamala’s Atlanta shebang, had an attendance of only 19,000.

In response, the Trump campaign has attempted to cover up the turnout discrepancies by doing what they do best: lying. Trump himself claimed that there were over 100,000 people in attendance at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania – the same rally where one of the attendees took a sniper shot at him. There weren’t. According to a site map presented by the House Task Force responsible for investigating the assassination attempt, there were only around 15,000 people in attendance. According to Professor Steve Doig of Arizona State University, a data journalist and expert in crowd estimations, he put the figure at a maximum of 30,000 people after analyzing photos of the event.

The man who peaced out at Donald Trump’s North Carolina rally is hardly the first to say an Irish goodbye at an event. According to videos of Trump’s recent, hate-filled rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, attendees exited in droves. According to CNN photographer DJ Judd, it only took about an hour for attendees to run for the exits. Despite having sold out the venue, Trump started speaking two hours behind schedule. Evidently, even his staunchest supporters had had enough.

According to journalist Oliya Scootercaster, Trump supporters who couldn’t get into the rally watched Trump speak on screens outside the venue as departing attendees walked past. And according to Scootercaster, some attendees had arrived 24 hours before in order to get in. RIP.


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Sarah Fimm
Sarah Fimm (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like... REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They're like that... but with anime. It's starting to get sad.