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2024 Election

Trump’s Pitiful Philadelphia Crowd Size Raises Questions, ‘It’s Half Empty, Zero Attendees in the Upper Bowl!’

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Donald Trump is famous for bragging about crowd size at his rallies and other venues, and of course, he infamously boasted about the crowd size at his inauguration. Accurate photos of his inauguration show that he was definitely exaggerating.

Now he’s being lampooned on social media because footage from his rally at Temple University’s Liacouras Center, a 10,000-seat venue in Pennsylvania, shows vast swaths of empty seats, with entire sections of the upper level being entirely empty, according to Newsweek. This is reminiscent of what happened in May when a controversy arose regarding the attendance at a Trump rally in South Bronx, New York. His spokesperson told Newsweek that 25,000 people attended the rally, but several journalists, who independently investigated this,  beg to differ.

The presumptive Republican 2024 presidential candidate has been holding high-profile rallies nationwide, hoping to strengthen support before his rematch with President Joe Biden. Pennsylvania is a crucial swing state, especially for Trump since it backed Biden in 2020 after backing Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

But if the paltry crowd size at the University is any indication, it looks like things aren’t going swimmingly for Trump. It caught the attention of Chris Jackson, a Democratic Party activist. He posted a 27-second clip on X of Trump at the rally on Saturday, showing masses of empty seats in the venue’s upper tiers.

 “Look at all those empty seats in Philadelphia. Old man can’t even fill a high school gym fill anymore. Sad,” he quipped.

His post has received 3.1 million views and nearly 10,000 “likes.”

Then there’s this post by “political junkie” Peter Henlein, who added the same clip and noted: “Here is a video of Trump at his rally tonight in swing state PA at Temple University’s Liacouras Center, capacity 10,200. It’s half empty. Zero attendees in the upper bowl. ”

“Odd for a guy that brags about pulling in 100k ppl in NJ and 30k in the Bronx.”

@WUTangKids noted:

“They got the entire back of the arena covered up with flags. The capacity at the Philly Trump rally is 10,206 and they’re not getting anywhere near that.”

Not content to just mislead about the crowd size, Trump told a few other whoppers at the Pennsylvania rally. He’s told so many lies over the years that I don’t think he knows how to tell the difference between falsehoods and the truth. And we know, thanks to careful research by The Washington Post, that Trump told more than 30,000 lies during his time as president. This fact-check by CNN, published in May, shows he’s still at it and (I’ll add) will always be.

Speaking to the crowd, Trump focused on crime, saying: “Few communities have suffered more under the Biden regime than Philadelphia. Under Crooked Joe, the City of Brotherly Love is being ravaged by bloodshed and crime.”

“Retail theft in Philly—I spend so much time here—is up 135 percent since I left office. The convenience stores are closing down left and right. The pharmacies have to lock up the soap,” he continued, adding, “You can’t buy toothpaste. You can’t buy a toothbrush. You want a toothbrush, it takes you 45 minutes.”

Sure, he paints a lurid picture regarding crime in Philly, goes off on a weird tangent about toothpaste, and never says where he gets that 135 percent from, but data released earlier this month by the FBI, shows, once again that Trump is either completely wrong or lying. It’s always either/or with this guy. That data shows that violent crime has fallen by 15 percent between January and March, as compared to the same time period last year. Murders have fallen by 26.4, rapes have decreased by 25.7, and there’s been a 12.5 percent decline in aggravated assault.

The two candidates are set to have their say in a debate on June 27, so I hope Biden hits Trump on his falsehoods. Because far too many people believe what Trump says without question. He makes these sweeping claims but rarely provides evidence to back them up.

Trump supporters are allergic to the facts, but more reasonable people aren’t.

Megan Hamilton
meet the author

Megan has lived in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and she currently lives in Central America. Living in these places has informed her writing on politics, science, and history. She is currently owned by 15 cats and 3 dogs and regularly owns Trump supporters when she has the opportunity. She can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GaiaLibra and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/politicalsaurus

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