As Republican President Donald Trump boasted about his massive crowd sizes at a rally in North Carolina over the weekend, a sneaky cameraperson live fact-checked him by showing rows of empty seats.
A viral video taken at Greensboro Coliseum featured Trump falsely claiming that he's had "the biggest rallies in history of any country," and he continued describing the popularity of his rallies from his perspective, saying:
"Every rally is full. You don't have any seats that are empty."
However, the clip filmed by an attendee showed that wasn't the case as Trump spoke.
The camera panned across the 22,000-seat arena showing many rows of empty seats and an entire upper tier blocked off to visitors with a large black curtain obscuring additional empty rows.
Confused supporters were seen looking around at all the unoccupied seats near them as Trump continued talking about his popular rallies.
You can view the clip here.
Several people were also spotted getting up from their seats and leaving the venue during his speech, and we're guessing they weren't all making a beeline for the restrooms simultaneously.
Crowds thinning out at his rallies is something the ex-President is still bitter about.
He got defensive on the topic of low rally turnout during his only presidential debate with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris on September 10, telling her:
"People don't leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.”
Sure Jan GIFGiphy
People were loving the rogue camera work that exposed the lie of Trump's "packed rallies."
On Monday, Trump held the first of four rallies in Raliegh, where there were thousands of empty seats and no line to enter the venue, according to NBC News.
During his speech, he bragged about the turnout at Friday's Milwaukee rally at Fiserv Forum, estimating 28,000 attendees were there that night despite the maximum capacity of 18,000.
“We could have filled that arena three times, maybe four times,” he said.
His second rally on Monday in Reading, Pennsylvania, didn't fare any better. The arena appeared half full before Trump's scheduled appearance, forcing an hour delay.
Trump's third rally at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh saw thousands in attendance; however, the upper deck was partitioned off and many empty seats inside the venue were visible.
With Election Day here, there is one thing we can know for sure.
We never have to hear about rally crowd sizes again. At least for now.
@PreetBharara/X
@RepBrendanBoyle/X
@twesq/Bluesky
@christopherharris/Bluesky
@evangelinewarren/X
@FrankC164/X
AMC