After weeks of his campaign officials boasting record reservations for President Donald Trump's first rally in months, turnout at the BOK center in Tulsa, Oklahoma left a lot to be desired for Republicans.
Only a few thousand people gathered in the 19 thousand seat arena, and an outdoor overflow areaâwhere thousands more were expectedâwas completely empty, prompting Trump to cancel a second address he was scheduled to give to the overflow crowd.
All in all, the fire marshal confirmed that only 6,200 peopleâless than a third of the venue's capacityâattended.
Trump's campaign staffâincluding manager Brad Parscaleâinsisted that protesters had blocked thousands of people from entering. This is despite Trump's own words days earlier vowing to deal roughly with any protesters attempting to disrupt the festivities. No one on the ground at the event confirmed any disruptive protesters, and the overflow area remained empty, signaling that no one was turned away from entering the stadium.
What was intended to be a comeback rally for the President, whose performance in the polls is dwindling to say the least, only served to humiliate him.
A tweet from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) only added to that humiliation.
The Speaker pointed out that the President could've simply addressed 6200 people via the group video chat service Zoom, thereby avoiding the controversy he faced for gathering thousands of people into an indoor space without masks in a state whose new virus cases had seen days of record-breaking highs.
Pelosi asserted that a Zoom meeting would have the "same energy," which likely alluded to the body language of the supporters who watched the President's erratic speech.
People enjoyed Pelosi's Twitter shade.
Pelosi wasn't the only one who tweeted about the President's latest humiliation.
A video of Trump exiting Marine One after the rally went viral for the look of defeat in Trump's demeanor.
The President is set to speak at a Teens for Trump event in Arizona on Tuesday.
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