Donald Trump kicked off his 2020 reelection campaign earlier this week with a big rally held in Orlando, Florida.
Of course, his entire speech was basically a knockoff of his 2016 campaign. If you happened to be one of the 22,000 people in that arena, you spent over an hour listening to Donald harp on immigration, the “fake news” media, socialism, and Hilary Clinton. It was almost as though he’s hasn’t done a single productive thing in the time that he has been in office, so why trouble with a whole new speech when you can just use the last one?
It seems that in addition to not being able to come up with any new material for his speech, the Trump campaign was having a little trouble finding new asses to go in those arena seats in Flordia.
Donald spent several days leading up to his rally (as well as quite a bit of time during it) bragging about how many supporters had shown up to his shindig. And ultimately, the arena was at capacity, at least at a few points during the evening. But according to a report from the New York Times, they didn’t come easily — the Trump campaign had to work for it.
NYT reports that the campaign actually rented buses that traveled all over the state to find enough supporters to fill the 22,000 seats and ensure that there was an overflow crowd outside the building. Aides also made sure to peddle the idea to the magazine that Donald’s crowd size was bigger and better than any that had been seen at a Democratic candidate’s.
Eric Trump just said there are 100,000 people here in Orlando for Trump’s rally. The 20,000 seat arena is currently not full.
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) June 18, 2019
While it’s true that the arena did eventually reach capacity for Trump’s rally, the Times did point out that many of the so-called supporters didn’t even stay for the entire event. Considering that several were obviously paid to be there, it’s really no wonder they didn’t stay any longer than they absolutely had to.
But none of that stopped Trump from hyping up his crowd size the way that he always does:
Big Rally tomorrow night in Orlando, Florida, looks to be setting records. We are building large movie screens outside to take care of everybody. Over 100,000 requests. Our Country is doing great, far beyond what the haters & losers thought possible – and it will only get better!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 17, 2019
Thousands of people are already lined up in Orlando, some two days before tomorrow nights big Rally. Large Screens and food trucks will be there for those that can’t get into the 25,000 capacity arena. It will be a very exciting evening! Make America Great Again!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2019
However, none of that was actually true. One news outlet reported that there were only around 8 people camped out before his rally, and the massive crowd that Trump claimed was gathered outside the arena during his event was really no more than a small gathering.
Looks like a few hundred people are watching on the big screens outside the Amway Center. Not packed to the brim by any means. pic.twitter.com/fbdD6lwCOH
— Michael Williams (@michaeldamianw) June 19, 2019
What do you know? Donald Trump is full of shit, yet again. Chances are, they were out more money on the buses and paid supporters than they were the actual damn rally.
Featured image via screen capture
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