‘We Never Have Empty Seats’

Former President Donald Trump is lashing out over “fake news” reports of under-attended rallies, while claiming that his political events “never have empty seats.”

Trump, the leading Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election, has repeatedly boasted about his support and the size of his crowds since launching his political career. While his events are often filled with dedicated supporters, photos and video of some rallies have suggested that they are not always at capacity.

The former president blasted the media for publishing photos of empty seats, insisting that “thousands of people get sent away” from every Trump rally in a Truth Social post on Wednesday. He argued that images appearing to suggest otherwise were of “once fully occupied areas and seats” that had been cleared out due to supporters rushing the stage at the beginning of his rallies.

Trump, who said earlier this month that a rally in Florida was attended by several times more people than the venue was capable of holding, urged the media to “get on board” with his claims about crowd size or risk “going out of business” due to a “lack of credibility.”

“Many times when I’m making a Speech, which are always sold out with lots of people not being able to get into the Arena or Venue, the Fake News will watch people come down from the rafters (bad seats) onto the floor—nearer the stage,” Trump wrote. “As soon as this happens, the Lamestream Media starts taking pictures of these once fully occupied areas and seats, and then come out with a story—’Trump Arena wasn’t full’ or, ‘Trump didn’t have a Sellout’—When they know that is not true. They say it without fail!”

“The fact is, thousands of people get sent away, we never have empty seats, because we’re selling a product people want—AMERICAN GREATNESS!” he added. “This is a Movement like none other, and the Failing Media should get on board now. Our Country needs it, and they need it because their lack of credibility is causing many News Organizations to fail. They’re going out of business because they don’t tell the truth. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump’s office via email on Wednesday.

During a rally in Hialeah, Florida, on November 8, the former president appeared to artificially inflate the crowd size by claiming that he was “standing in front of tens of thousands” of supporters. However, the venue only has a capacity of around 5,200 people, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Videos of the rally shared on X, formerly Twitter, show empty bleacher seats, although some guests can be seen standing behind a section of seats closer to the stage. An account associated with a group supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the 2024 GOP presidential primary also claimed that “people are streaming out of Trump’s BORING event while he is still speaking.”

A video of a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, shared by NBC News correspondent Gabe Gutierrez in July, shows large sections of empty seats while Trump is heard delivering his speech. There is no evidence that attendees who had been in the empty areas moved closer to the former president, with no sign of unseated people gathered near the stage.

Trump claimed last year that “the biggest crowd” he had ever spoken to was in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, shortly before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an ill-fated attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.

The AP reported that at least 10,000 people attended the Trump rally on January 6. Several other Trump events have had significantly more in the crowd, including some rallies that have drawn tens of thousands.