Former President Donald Trump‘s preoccupation with his crowd size has reared its head yet again, this time over his Thursday afternoon rally in the Bronx.
Trump, a Queens native, made a rare appearance in his deep-blue hometown of New York City and spoke to what NBC News reported as “one of the most diverse rally crowds of his political career.” The event was cast as part of his outreach to voters of color, and he tailored some of his usual talking points to the predominantly Black and Hispanic crowd.
Trump’s campaign later hailed the turnout at the event, estimating that 25,000 had been there. Pro-Trump figures and media outlets also ran with that number. On Truth Social, Trump posted an article from the right-wing Right Side Broadcasting Network that claimed as much, and then later lamented that the mainstream media did not cover the “big” rally.
“THIS WAS A BIG, IMPORTANT, AND EVEN STARTLING EVENT, AND YET MUCH OF THE LAMESTREAM NETWORK MEDIA REFUSED TO COVER IT,” he wrote. “Gee, I wonder why???”
Multiple mainstream media outlets did in fact cover the event. My MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones also explained the backdrop against which Trump’s Bronx rally was taking place. And contrary to the claim that 25,000 people showed up to the rally, a zoomed-out view of the event showed a much smaller crowd in attendance. (The campaign had a permit for 3,500 people, The New York Times reported.) For context, New York City’s Madison Square Garden can hold fewer than 20,000 people, and The Sphere in Las Vegas’ has an 18,600-person capacity. It’s notable that the rally drew even the meagre crowd it did, considering the location. But the claim that more people were there than could fit inside enormous venues is a familiar exaggeration from Trump and his allies, who have made a habit of overstating his appeal.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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