President Donald Trump is a size queen. When it comes to the Trump crowd size, at least.
Trump crowd size in Corpus Christi
Not only was he stuck on the “alternate fact” that his inaugural crowd was bigger than No. 44 Barack Obama’s, he took the opportunity as he visited Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday — giving assurances and boosting morale during Tropical Storm Harvey — by commenting on the crowd size.
“What a crowd, what a turnout,” Trump said to a crowd of several hundred people.
The crowd, many of whom were most likely evicted from their homes by Hurricane Harvey, cheered.
“We love you, you are special, we are here to take care of you,” Trump said. “It’s going well.”
Trump crowd size in Arizona
Trump was equally pleased about the “beautiful turnout” at his campaign-style rally in Phoenix, Arizona, last week. So, pleased, POTUS fired George Gigicos, the man who arranged his campaign rallies and returned to arrange the Phoenix rally as a contractor to the Republican National Committee.
Actually, Trump had top security aide Keith Schiller fire Gigicos.
During the rally, Trump touted the lack of protesters (which turned out to be a false claim) and proudly told the crowd: “A lot of people in here, a lot of people pouring right now. They can get them in. Whatever you can do, fire marshals, we’ll appreciate it.”
After the event, Trump took to Twitter, writing: “Thank you Arizona. Beautiful turnout of 15,000 in Phoenix tonight!”
Thank you Arizona. Beautiful turnout of 15,000 in Phoenix tonight! Full coverage of rally via my Facebook at: https://t.co/s0D12EFs40 pic.twitter.com/WT4D9Vsen1
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2017
But accounts conflict the president’s numbers. Exactly how many people were at the rally?
It’s hard to say. City of Phoenix spokeswoman Julie Watters tried to support Trump’s numbers, but there were a pesky few thousand not actually there.
“There were more than 10,000 inside and there were approximately between 4,500 to 5,000 outside who were turned away because the event was wrapping up,” she said, azcentral.com reported.
Others who were at the event estimated the crowd size to be around 4,000 inside the Phoenix Convention Center, which has a capacity of 19,000.
The Washington Post described the last dragging moments of the 72-minute speech:
“Hundreds left early, while others plopped down on the ground, scrolled through their social media feeds or started up a conversation with their neighbors. After waiting for hours in 107-degree heat to get into the rally hall — where their water bottles were confiscated by security — people were tired and dehydrated and the president just wasn’t keeping their attention. Although Trump has long been the master of reading the mood of a room and quickly adjusting his message to satisfy as many of his fans as possible, his rage seemed to cloud his senses.”
Here’s the full crowd as #TrumpinAZ finishes up. pic.twitter.com/iUGVUmppGZ
— David Catanese (@davecatanese) August 23, 2017
Trump was reportedly upset before he took the stage after social media coverage showed the sparse crowd when No. 45 arrived and blamed Gigicos’s staging:
“Gigicos had staged the event in a large multipurpose room. The main floor space was bisected by a dividing wall, leaving part of the space empty. There were some bleachers off to the side, but otherwise the audience was standing — and the scene appeared flat, lacking the energy and enthusiasm of other rallies.”
On Monday, Trump continued his size boasting at White House news conference on Monday. “You saw the massive crowd we had,” he said, NY Mag reported. “The people went crazy when I said, ‘What do you think of Sheriff Joe?’ Or something to that effect.”
Not only does the media give a platform to hate groups, but the media turns a blind eye to the gang violence on our streets! pic.twitter.com/Mau0B1qYIP
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2017
