Former President Donald Trump's preoccupation with crowd size is no secret. The beginning days of his administration were marked with then-President Trump's insistence that his 2017 inauguration crowd beat the record size seen at former President Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009. Trump's press secretary at the time, Sean Spicer, made the demonstrably false claim that Trump's crowd "was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period."
Throughout the 2020 campaign, Trump repeatedly berated then-candidate Joe Biden's crowd sizes, claiming they were evidence of a lack of enthusiasm among Americans to vote for Biden. In reality, the Biden campaign deliberately limited crowds at campaign events due to the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, with a rally in Georgia this past weekend, Trump's fixation with crowd sizes has reared its head again.
Through a statement issued by his spokeswoman, Liz Harrington, Trump insisted the crowd at the Georgia rally was "massive" and berated the media for not highlighting the crowd.
NEW!
President Donald J. Trump:
“We had a massive crowd last night in Georgia, but as usual, the Fake News Media absolutely refuses to show it. People are estimating 25,000 to 35,000 people, but our record so far is Texas with 87,000 people with 50,000 being turned away… pic.twitter.com/LcwEvEEkGo
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) March 27, 2022
Trump wrote:
"We had a massive crowd last night in Georgia, but as usual, the Fake News Media absolutely refuses to show it. People are estimating 25,000 to 35,000 people, but our record so far is Texas with 87,000 people with 50,000 being turned away This is really fun!”
Social media users soon contested Trump's claim with pictures documenting the rally's sparse attendance.
When I tell you #Trump lives in his own delusional world…listen to me! This terrible turnout was met with the following Trump comment: “We had a massive crowd last night in Georgia, but as usual, the Fake News Media absolutely refuses to show it. #TrumpDerangementSyndrome #RT pic.twitter.com/BXRDY6w1UQ
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) March 27, 2022
Yeah, don’t believe the line that there were 25,000-35,000 people at the Trump rally last night. The crowd was far smaller and far quieter than other rallies in Georgia — and elsewhere — I’ve covered. Also, I just noticed an attendee in this shot indicating the media is #1. https://t.co/MorrMo2bMF
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) March 27, 2022
Just in: Humiliated Trump team releases new proof of large crowd size at last night's rally. pic.twitter.com/2NvXBrQjmy
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) March 27, 2022
Womp womp. https://t.co/JvBxtRsKE2
— Democratic Coalition (@TheDemCoalition) March 27, 2022
Trump said the crowd can go back as far as the eye can see and the fake news won’t show it. Here you go! #gapol https://t.co/hyqYzSYLe7 pic.twitter.com/nm0qvDVrP2
— stephen fowler (@stphnfwlr) March 27, 2022
It’s over for the washed up, disgraced ex-president. Trump draws smallest crowd yet at a rally. He’s blaming cold weather. pic.twitter.com/KpuPKPTq8p
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) March 27, 2022
But Trump's erratic speech, as well as comments from other featured speakers, still generated discussion online.
Joe Biden is in Warsaw working with world leaders to take down Putin.
Trump is in Georgia holding a Nazi rally working to take down America. #TrumpRally
— Chafed Charlie 🇺🇦 (@ChafedCharlie) March 27, 2022
Unvarnished homophobia and it gets big cheers from Trump fans at his rally in Georgia https://t.co/lT6uXUJq3X
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 26, 2022
The timing of this Trump & GOP rally where Trump just said President Biden must recuse himself from all matters involving Ukraine is no coincidence. They are very intentionally counterprogramming Biden’s speech in Poland for Putin.
— Ben Meiselas (@meiselasb) March 27, 2022
Awkward.
