Trump's latest crowd size brag backfires as camera pans to reveal sea of empty seats

4 November 2024, 14:20 | Updated: 4 November 2024, 14:32

Donald Trump’s claim that he attracts “the biggest rallies in history” immediately backfired as a camera operator panned away from the former President speaking at a North Carolina rally to reveal several empty seats.

Trump has been fixated on crowd sizes throughout this election cycle, with a Kamala Harris comment on the matter during the September 10 television debate appearing to get under his skin.

This came after former President Barack Obama said at the Democratic National Convention in August that Trump had a "weird obsession with crowd sizes."

Speaking in Greensboro, North Carolina, the former President bragged: “We have had the biggest rallies in history of any country, and every rally is full. You don’t have any seats that are empty.

“The one we had today - you missed a beauty. We could have filled that place up 20 times.”

As Trump continued his boast, the camera panned up to show a number of empty seats in the top section of the arena behind the former President.

It carried on to show some gaps in the crowd in the centre of the arena before revealing large sections of empty seats towards the back as well as several spectators heading for the exit.

The Kamala HQ social media account was quick to mock Trump’s quickly-corrected statement as they quoted his claim before writing: “(He is speaking to multiple sections that are entirely empty.)”

They continued to ridicule the former President in a second post on the matter as they accompanied footage of the incident with a caption which repeated the claim by Trump before saying: “Cameraperson: Hold my beer.”

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This moment came just days after another of Trump’s boasts was comically corrected as a supporter exited from behind him while he claimed “nobody leaves early”.

Speaking at another event in North Carolina, he said: “Everybody watches our rallies, everybody loves our rallies, we never have an empty seat.”

Referring to Harris he said: “They try and demean us like that horrible, horrible person that I debated when she said ‘and people leave early.’ Nobody leaves early.”

At that very moment, a supporter got up out of his seat and left.

“If I saw them leaving early, you know what I would say?” Trump continued, appearing not to notice what was happening behind him.

“‘Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much,’ and I’d leave,” he said, adding: “But I’ve never had to do that. We have the greatest rallies in the world, there’s never an empty seat, and nobody leaves early.”

The 78-year-old routinely exaggerates his crowd size and once claimed the January 6 rally, which led to the Capitol Building being breached by rioters, attracted as many attendees as Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The figure was almost five times less, according to reports.

CNN had previously debunked a claim made by Trump in which he boasted about having “101,000 people” at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month.

KDKA, a news station in Pittsburgh and a CNN affiliate, said the Secret Service estimated the crowd at 24,000 attendees.